AN 



ESSAY 



ON 



CAIiCAREOlJS MANURES. 



BY EDMUND RUFFIN. 



PETERSBURG, (Va,) 

PUBLISHED BY J. W. CAMPBELL. 

1832. 






Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the 
year 1832, by John W. Campbell, in the Clerk's 
Office of the District Court of the United States 
in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



in Exchange 
Univ. of VirgiaiSb. 
f£B 7 1941 



Printed by L. R. Bailey, 26 North Fifth Street, Philadelphia. 



PREFACE. 



The object of this Essay is to investigate the 
peculiar features and qualities of the soils of our 
tide-water district, to show the causes of their 
general unproductiveness, and to point out means 
as yet but little used, for their effectual and pro- 
fitable improvement. My observations are par- 
ticularly addressed to the cultivators of that part 
of Virginia which lies between the sea coast and 
the falls of the rivers, and are generally intended 
to be applied only within those limits. By thus 
confining the application of the opinions which 
will be maintained, it is not intended to deny the 
propriety of their being further extended. On 
the contrary, I do not doubt but that they may 
correctly apply to all similar soils, under similar 
circumstances ; for the operations of nature are 
conducted by uniform laws, and like causes must 
every where produce like effects. But as I shall 
rely for proofs on such facts as are either suffi- 
ciently well known already, or may easily be 

tested by any inquirer, I do not choose to extend 

a2 



*Vi PREFACE. 

my ground so far, as to be opposed by the asser- 
tion of other facts, the truth of which can neither 
be established nor overthrown by any available 
or sufficient testimony. 

The peculiar qualities of our soils have been 
little noticed, and the causes of those peculiari- 
ties have never been sought — and though new 
and valuable truths may await the first explor- 
ers of this opening for agricultural research, yet 
they can scarcely avoid mistakes sufficiently nu- 
merous to moderate the triumph of success. I 
am not blind to the difficulties of the investiga- 
tion, nor to my own unfitness to overcome them 
— nor should I have hazarded the attempt, but 
for the belief that such an investigation is all im- 
portant for the improvement of our soil and 
agriculture, and that it was in vain to hope that it 
would be undertaken by those who were better 
qualified to do justice to the subject. I ask a 
deliberate hearing, and a strict scrutiny of my 
opinions, from those most interested in their 
truth. If a change in most of our lands, from 
hopeless sterility to a high state of productive- 
ness, is a vain fancy, it will be easy to discover 
and expose the fallacy of my views: but if these 
views are well founded, none better deserve the 



PREFACE. Vii 

attention of farmers^ and nothing can more seri- 
ously affect the future agricultural prosperity 
of our country. No where ought such improve- 
ments to be more highly valued, or more eagerly 
sought; than among us, where so many causes 
have concurred to reduce our products, and the 
prices of our lands, to the lowest state, and are 
yearly extending w^ant, and its conseqiience, ig- 
norance, among the cultivators and proprietors. 
In pursuing this inquiry, it will he necessary 
to show the truth of various facts and opinions^ 
which as yet are unsupported by authority, and 
most of v/hich have scarcely been noticed by 
agricidtural writers, except to be denied. The 
number of proofs that w^ill be required, and the 
discursive course through wiiich they must be 
reached, may probably render more obscure the 
reasoning of an unpractised writer. Treatises 
on agriculture ought to be so written as to be 
clearly understood, though it should be at the 
expense of some other requisites of good writing 
— and in this respect, I shall be satisfied if I 
succeed in making my opinions intelligible to 
every reader, though many might well dispense 
with such particular explanations. Agricultural 
works are seldom considered as requiring very 



Viii - PREFACE. 

close attention ; and therefore^ to be made useful, 
they should be put in a shape suited to cursory 
and irregular reading. A truth may be clearly 
established — but if its important consequences 
cannot be regularly deduced for many pages 
afterwards, the premises will then probably have 
been forgotten, so that a very particular refer- 
ence to them may be required. These consi- 
derations must serve as my apology for some 
repetitions — and for minute explanations and de- 
tails, w hich some readers may deem unnecessary. 
The theoretical opinions supported in this es- 
say, together with my earliest experiments with 
calcareous manures, were published in the Ame- 
rican Farmer, (vol. 3. page 313,) in 1821. No 
reason has since induced me to retract any of the 
important positions then assumed. But the many 
imperfections in that publication, which grew 
out of my want of experience, made it my duty, 
at some future time, to correct its errors, and 
supply the deficiencies of proof, from the fruits 
of subsequent practice and observation. With 
these views, this essay was commenced and 
finished in 1826. But the work had so grown 
on my hands, that instead of being of a size suit- 
able for insertion in an agricultural journal, it 



PREFACE. ix 

would have filled a volume. The unwillingness 
to assume so conspicuous a position^ as the pub- 
lication in that form would have required^ and 
the fear that my work would he more likely to 
meet with neglect or censui'e than applause^ in- 
duced me to lay it aside^ and to give up all in- 
tention of publication. Since that time, the use 
of fossil shells as a manure has greatly increased, 
in my own neighbourhood and elsewhere, and 
it has been attended generally with all the im- 
provement and profit that was expected. But 
from paying no regard to the theory of the ope- 
ration of this manure, and not even taking warn- 
ing from the known errors and losses of myself 
as well as others, most persons have used it inju- 
diciously, and have damaged more or less of 
their lands. So many disasters of this kind, 
seemed likely to restrain the use of this valuable 
manure, and even to destroy its reputation, just 
as it was beginning rapidly to extend. This ad- 
ditional consideration has at last induced me to 
risk the publication of this essay. The experi- 
ence of five more years, since it was written, has 
not contradicted any of the opinions then ad- 
vanced — and no change has been made in the 



X PREFACE. 

work^ except in form, and by continuing the 
reports of experiments to the present time. 

It should be remembered^ that my attempt to 
convey instruction is confined to a single means 
of improving our lands; and increasing our pro- 
fits : and though many other operations are^ from 
necessity^ incidentally noticed^ my opinions or 
practices on such subjects are not referred to, 
as rules for good husbandry. In using calcare- 
ous manure for the improvement of poor soils, 
my labours have been highly successful — but that 
success is not necessarily accompanied by gene- 
ral good management and economy. To those 
who know me intimately, it would be unneces- 
sary to confess the small pretensions that I have 
to the character of a good farmer — but to others, 
it may be required to explain why other im- 
provements and practices of good husbandry 
have not been more aided by, and kept pace 
with, the eflects of my use of calcareous manures. 

E. R, 

Cogi^iri's Point, Virginia, 
January 20th, 1832. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Chap. I. General description of earths and 

soils, - - - - - 13 
II. On the soils and state of agricul- 
ture of the tide-water district of 
Virginia, - - - - 21 

III. The different capacities of soils 

for improvement, - - - 29 

IV. Effects of the presence of calca- 

reous earth in soils, - - 41 

V. Results of the chemical examina- 
tions of various soils, - - 49 

VI. Chernical examination of rich 
soils containing no calcareous 
earth, - - - - - 59 
VII. Proofs of the existence of acid 

and neutral soils, - - - Q5 
VIII. The mode of operation of calca- 
reous earth in soils, - - 87 

IX. The practical effects of calcareous 

manures, - - _ . 98 

X. The effects of calcareous manures, 
on acid soils reduced by culti- 
vation, ----- 121 

XI. Effects of calcareous manures on 
exhausted acid soils, under their 
second growth of trees, - - 133 
XII. Effects of calcareous manures, on 
neutral soils, alone, or with gyp- 
sum, ----- 137 



Xll CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Chap. XIII. The damage caused by calcare- 
ous manure, and its remedies, 147 
XIV. Recapitulation of the effects of 
calcareous manures, and direc- 
tions for their most profitable 
application, - - - - 153 
XV. The permanency of calcareous 

manures, - - - - 164 
XVI. The expense and profit of marl- 
ing, 170 

XVII. Directions for digging and cart- 
ing marl, - - - - isi 

APPENDIX. 

A. Different significations of calcareous 

earth, 193 

B. The names usually given to soils often 

incorrect, - - - - - 196 

C. Some effects of slavery on agricultural 

profits, ------ 198 

D. Opinions that soils are generally calca- 

reous, ------ 200 

E. Calcareous earth a preserver of putres- 

cent animal matter, - - - 205 

G. Marling in England. — Liming, - - 207 
H. The cause of the inefficacy of gypsum as 

a manure on acid soils, - - - 224 
I. Estimates of the cost of labour applied 

to marling, 228 



ESSAY 



ON 



CAIiCAREOlJS MAXURES. 

CHAPTER I. 

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OP EARTHS AND SOILS. 

It is very necessary that we should correctly dis- 
tinguish earths and soils, and their many varieties : 
yet these terms are continually misapplied — and even 
among authors of high authority, no two agree in their 
definitions, or modes of classification. Where such 
differences exist, and no one known method is so free 
from material imperfections, as to be referred to as a 
common standard, it becomes necessary for every one 
who treats of soils, to define for himself — though per- 
haps he is thereby adding to the general mass of con- 
fusion already existing. This necessity must be my 
apology for whatever is new or unauthorized in the 
following definitions. 

The earths important to agriculture, and which form 
nearly the whole of the known globe, are only three 
— siliciousy aluminous, and calcareous, 

Silicious earthf in its state of absolute purity, forms 
B 



14 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

rock crystal. The whitest and purest sand may be 
considered as silicious earth in agriculture, though none 
is presented by nature entirely free from other in'gre- 
dients. It is composed of very hard particles, not 
soluble in any common acid, and which cannot be made 
coherent by mixing with water. Any degree of co- 
herence, or any shade of colour that sand may exhibit, 
is owing to the presence of other substances. The so- 
lidity of the particles of sand renders them impene- 
trable to water, which passes between them as through 
a sieve. The hardness of its particles, and their loose 
arrangement, make sand incapable of absorbing mois- 
ture from the atmosphere, or of retaining any valuable 
vapour or fluid, with which it may have been in any 
manner supplied. Silicious earth is also quickly heated 
by the sun, which adds to the rapidity with which it 
loses moisture. 

Muminous or argillaceous earth, when dry, ad- 
heres to the tongue, absorbs water rapidly and abun- 
dantly, and when wet, forms a tough paste, smooth 
and soapy to the touch. By burning it becomes as hard 
as stone. Clays derive their adhesiveness from their 
proportion of aluminous earth. This also is white when 
pure, but is generally coloured deeply and variously — 
red, yellow, or blue — by metallic substances. When 
drying, aluminous earth shrinks greatly — it becomes 
a mass of very hard lumps, of various sizes, separated 
by cracks and fissures, which become so many little 
reservoirs of standing water, when filled by rains, and 
remain so, until the lumps, by slowly imbibing the 
water, are distended enough to fill the space occupied 
before. 

Calcareous earth, or carbonate of lime, is lime 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 15 

combined with carbonic acid, and may be converted 
into pure or quick-lime by heat — and quick-lime, by 
exposure to the air, soon returns to its former state of 
calcareous earth. It forms marble, limestone, chalk, 
and shells, with very small admixtures of other sub- 
stances. Thus the term calcareous earth will not be 
used by me to include either lime in its pure state, or 
any of the numerous combinations which lime forms 
with the various acids, except that alone which is be- 
yond comparison the most abundant throughout the 
world, and most important as an ingredient of soils. 
Pure lime attracts all acids so powerfully, that it is 
never presented by nature except in combination with 
some one of them, and generally with the carbonic 
acid. When this compound is thrown into any stronger 
acid, as muriatic, nitric, or even strong vinegar — the 
lime being more powerfully attracted, unites with, and 
is dissolved by the stronger acid, and lets go the car- 
bonic, which escapes with effervescence in the form of 
air. In this manner, the carbonate of lime, or calca- 
reous earth, may easily be distinguished from silicious, 
and aluminous earth, and also from all other combina- 
tions of lime. [Appendix. A.] 

Calcareous earth in its different forms has been sup- 
posed to compose as much as one-eighth part of the 
crust of the globe.* Very extensive plains in France 
and England are of chalk, pure enough to be nearly 
barren, and to prove that pure calcareous earth would 
be entirely so. No chalk is to be found in our country 
— and it is only from European authors that we can 
know any thing of its agricultural characters, when 

• Cleaveland's Mineralogy — On Carbonate of Lime. 



16 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

nearly pure, or when forming a very large proportion 
of the surface of the land. The whiteness of chalk 
repels the rays of the sun, while its loose particles per- 
mit water to pass through, as easily as sand :* and thus 
calcareous earth is remarkable for some of the worst 
qualities of both the other earths, and which it serves 
to cure in them (as I shall hereafter show) when used 
as a manure. 

Most of those who have applied chemistry to agri- 
culture, consider magnesia as one of the important 
earths, t Magnesia, like lime, is never found pure, but 
always combined with some acid, and its most general 
form is the carbonate of magnesia. But even in this, 
its usual and natural state, it exists in such very small 
quantities in soils, and is found so rarely, that its name 
seems a useless addition to the list of the earths of agri- 
culture. For all practical purposes, gypsum (though 
only another combination of lime,) would more pro- 
perly be arranged as a distinct earth, or element of soils, 
as it is found in far greater abundance and purity, and 
certainly affects some soils and plants in a far more im- 
portant manner than has yet been attributed to mag- 
nesia, in its natural form. 

All the earths, when as pure as they are ever fur- 
nished by nature, are entirely barren, as might be in- 
ferred from the description of their qualities: nor would 
any addition of putrescent manures^ enable either of 
the earths to support vegetable life. 

• Complet Cours d'Agriculture, Sec. par I'Abbe Rozier — Terres. 

f Davy's Agricultural Chemistry, page 110. Phil. Ed. 1821. 

t Putrescent or enriching manures, are those formed of vegetable 
and animal matters, capable of putrefying, and thereby furnishing 
soluble food to plants. Farm-yard and stable manure, and the weeds 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 17 

The mixture of the three earths in due proportions, 
will correct the defects of all, and with a sufficiency of 
animal or vegetable matter, putrescent, and soluble in 
water, a soil is formed in which plants can extend their 
roots freely, yet be firmly supported, and derive all 
their needful supplies of air, water, and warmth, with- 
out being oppressed by too much of either. Such is 
the natural surface of almost all the habitable world : 
and though the qualities and value of soils are as vari- 
ous as the proportions of their ingredients are innu- 
merable, yet they are mostly so constituted, that no 
one earthy ingredient is so abundant, but that the tex- 
ture* of the soil is mechanically suited to some one 
valuable crop — some plants requiring a degree of close- 
ness, and others of openness in the soil, which would 
cause other plants to decline or perish. 

Soil seldom extends more than a few inches below 
the surface, as on the surface only are received those 
natural supplies of vegetable and animal matters, which 
are necessary to constitute soil. Valleys subject to in- 
undation have soils brought from higher lands, and 
deposited by the water, and therefore are of much 
greater depth. Below the soil is the subsoil, which is 
also a mixture of two or more earths, but is as barren 
as the unmixed earths, because it contains very little 
putrescent matter, the only food for plants. 

The qualities and value of soils depend on the pro- 
portions of their ingredients. We can easily compre- 

and other growth of the fields left to die and rot on them, are almost 
the only enrlchhig manures that we have used as yet. 

* The texture of a soil means the disposition of its parts, whicli 
produce such sensible qualities, as being close, adhesive, open, 
friable, &c. 

b2 



18 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

hend in what manner silicious and aluminous earths, 
by their mixture, serve to cure the defects of each 
other — the open, loose, thirsty, and hot nature of sand 
being corrected by, and correcting in turn, the close, 
adhesive, and water holding qualities of aluminous 
earth. This curative operation is merely mechanical 
— and in that manner it seems likely that calcareous 
earth, when in large proportions, also acts, and aids 
the corrective powers of both the other earths. This 
however is only supposition, as I have met with 
scarcely any such natural soil. 

But besides the mechanical effects of calcareous earth, 
(which perhaps are weaker than those of the other two,) 
that earth has chemical powers far more effectual in 
altering the texture of soils, and for which a compara- 
tively small quantity is amply sufficient. The chemi- 
cal action of calcareous earth as an ingredient of soils, 
will be fully treated of hereafter : it Is only mentioned 
in this place to avoid the apparent contradiction which 
might be inferred, if, in a general description of cal- 
careous earth, I had omitted all allusion to qualities 
that will afterwards be brought forward as all import- 
ant. 

It seems most proper to class and name soils accord- 
ing to their predominant earthy ingredients, by which 
term, I mean those ingredients which exert the great- 
est power, and most strongly mark the character of 
the soil. The predominant ingredient (in this sense,) 
is not always the most abundant, and frequently is the 
least. If the most abundant was considered the pre- 
dominant ingredient, and gave its name to the soil,* 

* Which is the plan of the nomenclature of soils proposed by 
Rozier — See article "Terres," 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 19 

then almost every one should be called silicious, as that 
earth is seldom equalled in quantity by all the others 
united. If the earthy parts of a soil were two-thirds 
silicious, and one-third of aluminous earth, the peculiar 
qualities of the smaller ingredient would predominate 
over the opposing qualities of the sand, and the mix- 
ture would be a tenacious clay. If the same soil had 
contained only one-twentieth part of calcareous earth, 
that ingredient would have had more marked effects 
on the soil, than could have been produced by either 
doubling, or diminishing to half their quantity, the 
silicious and aluminous earths, which formed the great 
bulk of the soil. If soils were named according to cer- 
tain proportions of their ingredients, (as proposed by 
Davy,*) a correct, though lanited analysis of a soil would 
be required, before its name or character could be 
given — and even then the name and character would 
often disagree. But every farmer can know what are 
the most marked good or bad qualities of his soils, as 
shown under tillage, and those qualities can be easily 
traced to their predominant ingredients. By com- 
pounding a few terms, various shades of difference may 
be designated with sufficient precision. A few exam- 
ples will be sufficient to show how all may be ap- 
plied : — 

A silicious or sandy soil has such a proportion of 
silicious earth as to show more of its peculiar proper- 
ties than those of any other ingredient. It would be 
more or less objectionable for its looseness, heat, and 
want of power to retain either moisture or putrescent 
manure — and not for toughness, liability to become 

• Agr. Chem. page 139. 



20 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

hard after wet ploughing, or any other quality of alu- 
minous earth. 

In like manner, an aluminous or clayey soil, would 
show most strongly the faults of aluminous earth, 
though more than half its bulk might be of silicious. 

The term loam is not essential to this plan, but it 
is convenient, as it will prevent the necessity of fre- 
quent compounds of other terms. It will be used for 
all soils formed with such proportions of sand and alu- 
minous earth, as not to be light enough to be called 
sandy, nor stiff enough for clay soil. Sandy loam 
and clayey loam would express its two extremes — and 
loamy sand would be still lighter than the former, and 
loamy clay stifier than the latter. 

In all compound names of soils, the last term should 
be considered as expressing the predominant earthy 
ingredient. Thus, a sandy loamy calcareous soily 
would be nearer to loam than sand, and more marked 
by its calcareous ingredient than either. Other ingre- 
dients of soils besides the earths, or any accidental or 
rare quality affecting their character considerably, may 
be described with sufficient accuracy by such addition- 
al terms as these — a ferruginous gravelly silicious 
loam — or a vegetable calcareous clay. [Appendix. B.] 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 21 



CHAPTER II. 

ON THE SOILS AND STATE OP AGRICULTURE OF THE 
TIDE-WATER DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA. 



«« During several days of our journey, 

<<no spot was seen that was not covered with a luxu- 
*^ riant growth of large and beautiful forest trees, ex- 
<'cept where they had been destroyed by the natives 
<^for the purpose of cultivation. The least fertile of 
<^ their pasture lands, without seeding, are soon covered 
<^ with grass several feet in height; and unless prevent- 
*^ed by cultivation, a second growth of trees rapidly 
<' springs up, which, without care or attention, attain 
^Uheir giant size in half the time that would be eX" 

<^pected on the best lands in England." 

If the foregoing description was met with in a 
"Journey through Hindoostan," or some equally un- 
known region, no European reader would doubt but 
such lands were fertile in the highest degree — and 
even many of ourselves would receive the same im- 
pression. Yet it is no exaggerated account of the poor- 
est natural soils in our own poor country, which are 
as remarkable for their producing luxuriant growths 
of pines, and broom grass, as for their improductive- 
ness in every cultivated or valuable crop. We are so 
accustomed to these facts, that we scarcely think of 
their singularity, nor of the impropriety of calling any 
land barren, which will produce a rapid growth of any 



22 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

one plant. Indeed, by the rapidity of that growth, 
(or the fitness of the soil for its production,) we have 
in some measure formed a standard of the poverty of 
the soil. 

With some exceptions to every general character, 
the tide-water district of Virginia may be described 
as generally level, sandy, poor, and free from any fix- 
ed rock, or any other than stones apparently rounded 
by the attrition of water. On much the greater part 
of the lands, no stone of any kind is to be found, of 
larger size than gravel. Pines of different kinds form 
the greater part of a heavy cover to the silicious soils 
in their virgin state, and mix considerably with oaks, 
and other growth of clay land. Both these kinds of 
soil, after being exhausted of their little fertility by 
cultivation, and "^^ turned out" to recruit, are soon co- 
vered by young pines, which grow with vigour and 
luxuriance. This general description applies more 
particularly to the ridges which separate the slopes 
on different streams. The ridge lands are always level, 
and very poor — sometimes clayey, more generally 
sandy, but stilfer than would be inferred from the pro- 
portion of silicious earth they contain, which is caused 
by the fineness of its particles. Whortleberry bushes, 
as well as pines, are abundant on ridge lands — and nu- 
merous shallow basins are found, which are ponds of 
rain water in winter, but dry in summer. None of 
this large proportion of our lands, has paid the expense 
of clearing and cultivation, and much the greater part 
still remains under its native growth. Enough how- 
ever has been cleared and cultivated in every neigh- 
bourhood, to prove its utter worthlessness, under com- 
mon management. The soils of ridge lands vary be- 



ox CALCAREOUS MANURES. 23 

tween sandy loam, and clayey loam. It is difficult to 
estimate their general product under cultivation ; but 
judging from my own experience of such soils, the 
product may be from five bushels of corn, or as much 
of wheat, to the acre, on the most clayey soils, to 
twelve bushels of corn on the most sandy — which 
would probably not yield three bushels of wheat, if it 
was there attempted. 

The slojies extend from the ridges to the streams, 
or to the alluvial bottoms, and include the whole inter- 
val between neighbouring branches of the same stream. 
This class of soils forms another great body of lands ; 
of a higher grade of fertility, though far from valuable. 
It is generally more sandy than the poorer ridge land, 
and when long cultivated, is more or less deprived of its 
soil, by the washing of rains, on every slight declivity. 
The washing away of three or four inches in depth, 
exposes a steril subsoil (or forms a ''gall") which 
continues thenceforth bare of all vegetation : a greater 
declivity of the surface forms gullies several feet in 
depth, the earth from which, covers and injures the 
adjacent lower land. Most of this kind of land has 
been cleared, and greatly exhausted. Its virgin growth 
is often more of oak, hickory, and dogwood, than 
pine — but when turned out of cultivation, an unmixed 
growth of pine follows. Land of this kind in general 
has very little durability ; its usual best jDroduct of 
corn may be for a few crops, eighteen or twenty bushels 
— and even as much as twenty-five bushels, from the 
highest grade. Wheat is seldom a productive or profita- 
ble crop on the slopes, the soil being generally too 
sandy. When such soils as these are called rich or valu- 
able (as most persons would describe them,) those terms 



24 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

must be considered as only comparative — and such an 
application of them proves that truly fertile and valua- 
ble soils, are very scarce in Lower Virginia. 

The only very rich and durable soils below the falls 
of our rivers, are narrow strips of highland along their 
banks, and the lowlands formed by the alluvion of the 
numerous smaller streams which water our country. 
These alluvial bottoms, though highly productive, are 
lessened in value by being generally too sandy, and 
by the damage they suffer from being often inundated 
by floods of rain. The best highland soils seldom ex- 
tend more than half a mile from the river's edge — 
sometimes not fifty yards. These irregular margins are 
composed of loams of various qualities, but all highly 
valuable ; and the best soils are scarcely to be sur- 
passed, in their original fertility, and durability under 
severe tillage. Their nature and peculiarities will be 
again adverted to, and more fully described hereafter. 

The simple statement of the general course of tillage 
to which our part of the country has been subjected, 
is sufficient to prove that great impoverishment of the 
soil has been the inevitable consequence. The small 
portion of rich river margins, was soon all cleared, 
and was tilled without cessation for many years. The 
clearing of the slopes was next commenced, and is not 
yet entirely completed. On these soils, the succession 
of crops was less rapid, or, from necessity, tillage was 
sooner suspended. If not rich enough for tobacco 
when first cleared, (or as soon as it ceased to be so,) 
land of this kind was planted in corn two or three years 
in succession, and afterwards every second year. The 
intermediate year between the crops of corn, the field 
was «* rested" under a crop of wheat, if it would pro- 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 25 

duce four or five bushels to the acre. If the sandlness, or 
exhausted condition of the soil, denied even this small 
product of wheat, that crop was probably, not attempted 
— and instead of it, the field was exposed to close graz- 
ing, from the time of gathering one crop of corn, to 
that of preparing to plant another. No manure was 
applied, except on the tobacco lots ; and this rotation 
of a grain crop every year, and afterwards every second 
year, was kept up as long as the field would produce 
five bushels of corn to the acre. When reduced below 
that product, and to less than the necessary expense of 
cultivation, the land was turned out to recover under a 
new growth of pines. After twenty or thirty years, 
according to the convenience of the owner, the same 
land would be again cleared, and put under similar 
scourging tillage, which however would then much 
sooner end, as before, in exhaustion. Such a general 
system is not yet every where abandoned — and many 
years have not passed, since such was the usual course 
on almost every farm. 

How much our country has been impoverished dur- 
ing the last fifty years, cannot be determined by any 
satisfactory testimony. But however we may differ 
on this head, there are but few who will not concur in 
the opinion, that our system of cultivation has been 
every year lessening the productive power of our lands 
in general — and that no one county, no neighbourhood, 
and but few particular farms, have been at all enriched, 
since their first settlement and cultivation. Yet many of 
our farming operations have been much improved with- 
in the last fifteen or twenty years. Driven by necessity, 
proprietors direct more personal attention to their farms 
— better implements of husbandry are used — every 
C 



26 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

process is more perfectly performed — and whether well 
or ill directed, a spirit of inquiry and enterprise has 
been awakened, which before had no existence. 

Throughout the country below the Falls, and perhaps 
thirty miles above, if the best land be excluded, say 
one-tenth, the remaining nine-tenths will not yield an 
average product of ten bushels of corn to the acre ; 
though that grain is best suited to our soils in general, 
and far exceeds in quantity all other kinds raised. Of 
course, the product of a large proportion of the land, 
would fall below this average. Such crops, in very 
many cases, cannot remunerate the cultivator. If our 
remaining woodland could be at once brought into 
cultivation, the gross product of the country would 
be greatly increased, but the 7ietf product very pro- 
bably diminished — as the general poverty of these lands 
would cause more expense than profit to accompany 
their cultivation under the usual system. Yet every 
year we are using all our exertions to clear woodland, 
and in fact seldom increase either nett or gross pro- 
ducts — because nearly as much old exhausted land is 
turned out, as is substituted by the newly cleared. 
Sound calculations of profit and loss, would induce us 
to reduce the extent of our present cultivation, by 
turning out every acre that yields less than the total 
cost of its tillage. 

No political truth is better established than that the 
population of every country will increase, or diminish, 
according to its regular supply of food. We know 
from the census of 1830, compared with those of 1820 
and 1810, that our population is nearly stationary, and 
.in some counties, is actually lessening ; and therefore 
it is certain, that our agriculture is not increasing the 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 27 

amount of food, or the means of purchasing food — 
with all the assistance of the new land annually brought 
into culture. A surplus population, with its deplorable 
consequences, is only prevented by the great current 
of emigration which is continually flowing westward. 
No matter who emigrates, or with what motive — the 
enterprising or wealthy citizen who leaves us to seek 
richer lands and greater profits, and the slave sold and 
carried away on account of his owner's poverty, con- 
cur in producing the same result, though with very 
difierent degrees of benefit to those who remain. If 
this great and continued drain from our population 
was stopped, and our agriculture was not improved, 
want and misery would work to produce the same re- 
sults. Births would diminish, and deaths would in- 
crease — and hunger and disease would keep down po- 
pulation to that number, that the average products of 
our agricultural and other labour could feed, and sup- 
ply with other means of living. 

A stranger to our situation and habits might well 
oppose to my statements the very reasonable objection, 
that no man would, or could, long pursue a system of 
cultivation of which the returns fell short of his ex- 
penses, including rent of land, hire of labour, interest 
on the necessary capital, &c. Very true — if he had to 
pay those expenses out of his profits, he would soon 
be driven from his farm to a jail. But we own our 
land, our labourers, and stock — and though the calcu- 
lation of nett profit, or of loss, is precisely the same, 
yet we are not ruined by making only two per cent, on 
our capital, provided we can manage to live on that 
income. If we live on still less, we are actually grow- 
ing richer (by laying up a part of our two per cent.,) 



28 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

notwithstanding the most clearly proved regular loss 
on our farming. 

Our condition has been so gradually growing worse, 
that we are either not aware of the extent of the evil, 
or are in a great measure reconciled by custom to 
profitless labour. No hope for a better state of things 
can be entertained, until we shake off this apathy — 
this excess of contentment w^hich makes no effort to 
avoid existing evils. I have endeavoured to expose 
what is worst in our situation as farmers — if it should 
have the effect of rousing any of my countrymen to 
the absolute necessity of some improvement, to avoid 
ultimate ruin, I hope also to point out to some of their 
number, if not to all, that the means for certain and 
highly profitable improvements, are completely within 
their reach. [Appendix. C] 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 29 



CHAPTER III. 

THE DIFFERENT CAPACITIES OF SOILS FOR IMPROVE- 
MENT. 

As far as the nature of the subjects permitted, the 
foregoing chapters have been merely explanatory and 
descriptive. The same subjects will be resumed and 
more fully treated in the course of the following argu- 
ment, the premises of which, are the facts and circum- 
stances that have been detailed. What I wish to prove 
will be stated in a series of propositions, which will 
now be presented at one view, and afterwards be se- 
parately discussed in their proper order. 

Proposition 1. Soils naturally poor, and rich soils 
reduced to poverty by cultivation, are essentially dif- 
ferent in their powers of retaining putrescent manures: 
and under like circumstances, the fitness of any soil 
to be enriched by these manures, is in proportion to 
whaj: was its natural fertility. 

2. The natural sterility of the soils of Lower Vir- 
ginia is caused by such soils being destitute of calca- 
reous earth, and their being injured by the presence 
and effects of vegetable acid. 

3. The fertilizing effects of calcareous earth are 
chiefly produced by its power of neutralizing acids, 
and of combining putrescent manures with soils, be- 
tween which there would otherwise be but little if any 
chemical attraction. * 

* When any substance is mentioned as combining with one or 
more other substances, as different manures with each other, or 

2 



30 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

4. Poor and acid soils cannot be improved durably, 
or profitably, by putrescent manures, without previ- 
ously making them calcareous, and thereby correcting 
the defect in their constitution. 

5. Calcareous manures will give to our worst soils a 
power of retaining putrescent manures, equal to that 
of the best — and will cause more productiveness, and 
yield more profit, than any other improvement practi- 
cable in Lower Virginia. 

Dismissing from consideration, for the present, all 
the others, I shall proceed to maintain the First Pro- 
])ositio7i. 

Soils naturally poor, and rich soils reduced to 
poverty by cultivation, are essentially different in 
their power of retaining putrescent manures : and 
under like circumstances, the fitness of any soil to 
be enriched by these manures, is in proportion to 
what was its natural fertility , 

The natural fertility of a soil is not intended to 
be estimated by the amount of its earliest product, 

with soil, I mean that a union is formed by chemical attraction, and 
not by simple mixture. Mixtures are made by mechanical means, 
and may be separated in like manner; but comhmations are chemi- 
cal, and require some stronger chemical attraction, to take away 
either of the bodies so united. 

When two substances combine, they both lose their previous 
peculiar qualities, or neutralize them for each other, and form a 
third substance different from both. Thus, if certain known pro- 
portions of muriatic acid, and pure or caustic soda, be brought to- 
gether, their strong attraction will cause them to combine imme- 
diately. The violent corrosive acid quality of the one, and the 
equally pecuUar alkaline taste and powers of the other, will neu- 
tralizey or entirely destroy each other — and the compound formed 
is common salt, the qualities of which are as strongly marked, but 
totally different from those of either of its constituent parts. 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 31 

when first brought under cultivation, because several 
temporary causes then operate either to keep down, or 
to augment the product. If land be cultivated imme- 
diately after the trees are cut down, the crop is greatly 
lessened by the numerous living roots, and conse- 
quent bad tillage — the excess of unrotted vegetable 
matter, and the coldness of the soil, from which the 
rays of the sun had been so long excluded. On the 
other hand, if cultivation is delayed one or two years, 
the leaves and other vegetable matters are rotted, and 
in the best state to supply food to plants, and are so 
abundant, that a far better crop will be raised than 
could have been obtained before, or perhaps will be 
again, without manure. For these reasons, the degree 
of natural fertility of any soil should be measured by 
its products after these temporary causes have ceased 
to act, which will generally take place before the third 
or fourth crop is gathered. According, then, to this de- 
finition, a certain degree of permanency in its early 
productiveness is necessary, to entitle a soil to be 
termed naturally fertile. It is in this sense, that I 
deny to any poor lands, except such as were naturally 
fertile, the capacity of being made rich by putrescent 
manures. 

The foregoing proposition would by many persons 
be so readily admitted as true, that attempting to prove 
it would be deemed entirely superfluous. But many 
others will as strongly deny its truth, and can support 
their opposition by high agricultural authorities. 

General readers, who may have no connexion with 
farming, must have gathered from the incidental no- 
tices in various literary works, that some countries or 
districts that were noted for their uncommon fertility 



32 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

or barrenness, as far back as any accounts of them have 
been recorded, still retain the same general character, 
through every change of policy, government, and even 
of the race of inhabitants. They know that for some 
centuries at least, there has been no change in the 
strong contrast between the barrenness of Norway, 
Brandenburg, and the Highlands of Scotland, and the 
fertility of Lombardy and Valencia. Sicily, notwith- 
standing its government is calculated to discourage in- 
dustry, and production of every profitable kind, still 
exhibits that fertility for which it was celebrated two 
thousand years ago. It seems a necessary inference 
from the many statements of which these are exam- 
ples, that the labours of man have been but of little 
avail in altering permanently the characters and quali- 
ties given to soils by nature. 

Most of our experienced practical cultivators, 
through a different course, have arrived at the same 
conclusion. Their practice has taught them the truth 
of this proposition — and the opinions thus formed 
have profitably directed their most important opera- 
tions. They are accustomed to estimate the worth of 
land by its natural degree of fertility — and by the 
same rule they are directed on what soils to bestow 
their scanty stock of manure, and where to expect 
exhausted fields to recover by rest, and their own 
unassisted powers. But content with knowing the 
fact, this useful class of farmers have never inquired 
for its. cause — and their opinions on this subject, as on 
most others, have not been communicated so as to 
benefit others. 

But if all literary men who are not farmers, and all 
practical cultivators who seldom read, admitted the 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 33 

truth of my proposition, it would avail but little for 
improving our agricultural operations — and the only 
prospect of its being usefully disseminated, is through 
that class of farmers who have received their first 
opinions of improving soils, from books, and whose 
subsequent plans and practice have grown out of those 
opinions. If poor natural soils cannot be durably or 
profitably improved by putrescent manures, this truth 
should not only be known, but kept constantly in view, 
by every farmer who can hope to improve with suc- 
cess. Yet it is a remarkable fact, that the difference 
in the capacities of soils for receiving improvement, 
has not attracted the attention of scientific farmers — 
and the doctrine has no direct and positive support 
from the author of any treatise on agriculture, English 
or American, that I have been able to consult. On the 
contrary, it seems to be considered by all of them, 
that to collect and apply as much vegetable and animal 
manure as possible, is sufficient to ensure profit to 
every farmer, and fertility to every soil. They do not 
tell us that numerous exceptions to that rule will be 
found, and that many soils of apparent good texture, 
if not incapable of being enriched from the barn-yard, 
would at least cause more loss than clear profit, by 
being improved from that source. 

When it is assumed that the silence of every distin- 
guished author as to certain soils being incapable of 
being profitably enriched, amounts to ignorance of the 
fact, or a tacit denial of its truth — it may be objected 
that the exception was not omitted from either of these 
causes, but because it was established and undoubted. 
This is barely possible: but even if such was the case, 
their silence has had all the ill consequences that could 



34 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

have grown out of a positive denial of any exceptions 
to the propriety of manuring poor soils. Every zealous 
young farmer, who draws most of his knowledge and 
opinions from books, adopts precisely the same idea 
of their directions — and if he owns barren soils, he 
probably throws away his labour and manure for their 
improvement, for years, before experience compels 
him to abandon his hopes, and acknowledge that his 
guides have led him only to failure and loss. Such 
farmers as I allude to, by their enthusiasm and spirit 
of enterprise, are capable of rendering the most im- 
portant benefits to agriculture. Whatever may be their 
impelling motives, the public derives nearly all the 
benefit of their successful plans — and their far more 
numerous misdirected labours, and consequent disap- 
pointments, are productive of national, still more than 
individual loss. The occurrence of only a few such 
mistakes, made by reading farmers, will serve to acquit 
me of combating a shadow — and there are few of us 
who cannot recollect some such examples. 

But if the foregoing objection has any w^eight in 
justifying European authors in not naming this excep- 
tion, it can have none for those of our country. If it 
is admitted that soils naturally poor are incapable of 
being enriched, with profit, that admission must cover 
three-fourths of all the highland in the tide-water dis- 
trict. Surely no one will contend that so sweeping 
an exception was silently understood by the author of 
Arator, as qualifying his exhortations to improve our 
lands : and if no such exception was intended to be 
made, then will his directions for improvement, and 
his promises of reward, be found equally fallacious, 
for the greater portion of the country, to benefit which 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 35 

his work was specially intended. The omission of any- 
such exception by the writers of the United States, is 
the more remarkable, as the land has been so recently 
brought under cultivation, that the original degree of 
fertility of almost every farm may be known to its 
owner, and compared with the after progress of ex- 
haustion or improvement. 

I might quote many authorities to prove that I have 
correctly stated what is the fair and only inference to 
be drawn from agricultural books, respecting the ca- 
pacity of poor soils to receive improvement. But a 
few of the most strongly marked passages in Arator 
will be fully sufficient for this purpose. The venerated 
author of that work w^as too well acquainted with the 
writings of European agriculturists, to have mistaken 
their doctrines in this important particular. A large 
portion of his useful life was devoted to the successful 
improvement of exhausted, but originally fertile lands. 
His instructions for producing similar improvements 
are expressly addressed to the cultivators of the east- 
ern parts of Virginia and North Carolina, and are 
given as applicable to all our soils, without exception. 
Considering all these circumstances, the conclusions 
which are evidently and unavoidably deduced from 
his work, may be fairly considered, not only as sup- 
ported by his own experience, but as concurring with 
the general doctrine of improving poor soils, main- 
tained by previous writers. 

At page 54, third edition of Arator, '' mclosing^^ 
[i. e. leaving fields to receive their own vegetable 
cover, for their improvement during the years of rest,] 
is said to be " the most powerful means of fertilizing 



36 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

the earth" — and the process is declared to be rapid, 
the returns near, and the gain great. 

Page 61. ^^If these few means of fertilizing the 
country [cornstalks, straw, and animal dung,] were 
skilfully used, they would of themselves suffice to 
change its state from sterility to fruitfulness." — 
By the litter of Indian corn, and of small grain, and 
of penning cattle, managed with only an inferior 
degree of skill, in union with inclosing, I will ven- 
ture to affirm that a farm may in ten years be made 
to double its produce, and in twenty to quadruple 
it.'^ 

No opinions could be more strongly or uncondition- 
ally expressed than these. No reservation or excep- 
tion is made. I may safely appeal to each of the many 
hundreds who attempted to obey these instructions, to 
declare whether any one considered his own naturally 
poor soils excluded from the benefit of these promises 
— or whether a tithe of that benefit was realized on 
any farm composed generally of such soils. In a field 
of mine that has been secured from grazing since 1814, 
and cultivated on the four shift rotation, the produce 
of a marked spot has been measured every fourth year 
(when in corn) since 1820. The difference of product 
has been such as the differences of season might have 
caused — and the last crop (in 1828) was worse than 
those of either of the two preceding rotations. There 
is no reason to believe that even the smallest increase 
of productive power has taken place. 

It is far from my intention, by these remarks, to 
deny the propriety, or to question the highly benefi- 
cial results, of applying the system of improvement 
recommended by Arator, to soils originally fertile. 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 37 

On the contrary, it is as much my object to maintain 
the facility of restoring to worn lands their natural 
degree of fertility, by vegetable applications, as it is 
to deny the power of exceeding that degree, however 
low it may have been. One more quotation will be 
offered, because its recent date and the source whence 
it is derived, furnish the best proof that it is still the 
received opinion among agricultural writers, that all 
soils may be profitably improved, by putrescent ma- 
nures. An article in the American Farmer, of October 
14th 1S31, on ^^ manuring large farms,'^ by the edi- 
tor, contains the following expressions. ^^ By 

^'proper exertions, every farm in the United States 
**can be manured with less expense than the surplus 
^* profits arising from the manure would come to. This 
''we sincerely believe, and we have arrived at this 
'' conclusion from long and attentive observation. We 
" never yet saw a farm that we could not point to 
''means of manuring, and bring into a state of high 
"and profitable cultivation at an expense altogether 
"inconsiderable when contrasted with the advantages 
"to be derived from it. '^ The remainder of the arti- 
cle shows that jDutrescent manures are principally re- 
lied on to produce these effects : marsh and swamp 
mud are the only kinds referred to that are not entirely 
putrescent in their action, and mud certainly cannot 
be used to manure every farm. Mr. Smith, having 
been long the conductor of a valuable Agricultural 
Journal, as a matter of course, is extensively acquaint- 
ed with the works and opinions of the best writers on 
agriculture ; and therefore, his advancing the foregoing 
opinions, as certain and undoubted, is as much a proof 
D 



38 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

of the general concurrence of preceding writers, as if 
the same had been given as a digest of their precepts. 

Some persons will readily admit the great difference 
in the capacities of soils for improvement, but consider 
a deficiency of clay only to cause the want of power 
to retain manures. The general excess of sand in our 
poor lands might warrant this belief in a superficial 
and limited observer. But though clay soils are more 
rarely met with, they present, in proportion to their 
extent, full as much poor land. The most barren and 
worthless soils in the county of Prince George, are 
also the stiffest. A poor clay soil, will retain manure 
longer than a poor sandy soil — but it will not the less 
certainly lose its acquired fertility at a somewhat later 
period. When it is considered how much more ma- 
nure is required by clay soils, it is doubtful whether 
the improvement of the sandy soil would not be at- 
tended with more profit — or more properly speaking, 
with less actual loss. 

It is true that the capacity of a soil for improvement 
is greatly affected by its texture, shape of the surface, 
and its supply of moisture. Dry, level, clay soils, will 
retain manure longer, than if they were sandy, hilly, 
or wet. But however important these circumstances 
may be, neither the presence or absence of any of them 
can cause the differences of capacity for improvement. 
There are rich and valuable soils with one or more of 
all these faults — and there are soils the least capable 
of improvement, free from objection as to their tex- 
ture, degree of moisture, or inclination of their sur- 
face. Indeed the great body of our poor ridge lands, 
are more free from faults of this kind, than soils of far 
greater productiveness usually are. Unless then some 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 39 

Other, and far more powerful obstacle to improvement 
exists, why should not all our woodland be highly 
enriched, by the hundreds, or thousands of crops of 
leaves which have successively fallen and rotted there? 
Notwithstanding this vegetable manuring, which infi- 
nitely exceeds all that the industry and patience of 
man can possibly equal, most of our woodland re- 
mains poor — and this one fact (which at least is indis- 
putable,) ought to satisfy all of the impossibility of en- 
riching such soils by putrescent manures only. Some 
few acres may be highly improved, by receiving all 
the manure derived from the offal of the whole farm — 
and entire farms, in the neighbourhood of towns, may 
be kept rich by continually applying large quantities 
of purchased manures. But no where can a farm be 
found, which has been improved beyond its original 
fertility, by means of the vegetable resources of its 
own arable fields. If this opinion is erroneous, nothing 
is easier than to prove my mistake, by adducing un- 
doubted examples of such improvements having been 
made. 

But a few remarks will suffice on the capacity for 
improvement of worn lands, which were originally 
fertile. With regard to these soils, I have only to 
concur in the received opinion of their fitness for du- 
rable and profitable improvement by putrescent ma- 
nures. After being exhausted by cultivation, they 
will recover their productive power, by merely being 
left to rest for a sufficient time, and receiving the ma- 
nure made by nature, of the weeds and other plants 
that grow and die upon the land. Even if robbed of 
the greater part of that supply, by the grazing of ani- 
mals, a still longer time will serve to obtain the same 



40 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

result. The better a soil was at first, the sooner it 
will recover by these means, or by artificial manuring. 
On soils of this kind, the labours of the improving 
farmer meet with success and reward — and whenever 
we hear of remarkable improvements of poor land by 
putrescent manures, further inquiry will show us that 
these poor lands had once been rich. 

The continued fertility of certain countries for hun- 
dreds or even thousands of years, does not prove that 
the land could not be, or had not been, exhausted by 
cultivation : but only that it was slow to exhaust and 
rapid in recovering — so that whatever repeated changes 
may have occurred in each particular tract, the whole 
country taken together always retains a high degree 
of productiveness. Still the same rule will apply to 
the richest and the poorest soils — that each exerts 
strongly a force to retain as much fertility as nature 
gave them — and that when worn and reduced, each 
may easily be restored to its original state, but cannot 
be raised higher, with either durability or profit. 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 41 



CHAPTER IV, 

EFFECTS OF THE PRESENCE OF CALCAREOUS EARTH 

IN SOILS. 

Proposition 2. The natural sterility of the soils 
of Lower Vir^ginia is caused by such soils being des- 
titute of calcareous earth, and their being injured 
by the presence and effects of vegetable acid. 

The means which would appear the most likely to 
lead to the causes of the different capacities of soils for 
improvement, is to inquire whether any known in- 
gredient or quality is always to be found belonging to 
improvable soils, and never to the unimprovable — or 
which always accompanies the latter, and never the 
former kind. If either of these results can be obtained, 
we will have good ground for supposing that we have 
discovered the general cause of fertility, in the one 
case — or of barrenness, in the other : and it will fol- 
low, that if we can supply to barren soils the deficient 
beneficial ingredient — or can destroy that which is 
injurious to them — that their incapacity for receiving 
improvement will be removed. All the common in- 
gredients of soils, as sand, clay, or gravel — and such 
qualities as moisture or dryness — a level, or a hilly 
surface — however they may affect the value of soils, 
are each found exhibited in a remarkable degree, in 
both the fertile and the steril. The abundance of 
putrescent vegetable matter might well be considered 
the cause of fertility, by one who judged only from 

D 2 



42 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

lands long under cultivation. But though vegetable 
matter in sufficient quantity is essential to the existence 
of fertility, yet will this substance also be found inade- 
quate, as its cause. Vegetable matter abounds in all 
rich land, it is admitted ; but it has also been furnished 
by nature, in quantities exceeding all computation, to 
the most barren soils we own. 

But there is one ingredient, of which not the small- 
est proportion can be found in any of our poor soils, 
and which, wherever found, indicates a soil remarkable 
for natural and durable fertility. This is calcareous 
earth. These facts alone, if sustained, will go far to 
prove that this earth is the cause of fertility, and the 
cure for barrenness. 

On some part of most farms touching tide-water, 
either muscle or oyster shells are found mixed with 
the soil. Oyster shells are confined to the lands on 
salt water, where they are very abundant, and some- 
times extend through large fields. Higher up the 
rivers, muscle shells only are to be seen thus deposited 
by nature, and they decrease as we approach the Falls. 
The proportion of shelly land in the countries highest 
on tide-water, is very small — but the small extent of 
these spots does not prevent, but rather aids, the in- 
vestigation of the peculiar qualities of such soils. Spots 
of shelly land, not exceeding a few acres in extent, 
could not well have been cultivated differently from 
the balance of the fields, of which they formed parts 
— and therefore they can be better compared with the 
worse soils, under like treatment. Every acre of shelly 
land is, or has been, remarkable for its richness, and 
still more for its durability. There are few farmers 
among us who have not heard described tracts of shelly 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 43 

soil on Nansemond and York rivers, which are cele- 
brated for their long resistance of the most exhausting 
system of tillage, and which still remain fertile, not- 
withstanding all the injury which they must have sus- 
tained from their severe treatment. We are told that 
on some of these lands, corn has been raised every 
successive year, without any help from manure, for a 
longer time than the owners could remember, or could 
be informed of, correctly. But without relying on 
any such remarkable cases, there can be no doubt but 
that every acre of our shelly land has been at least as 
much tilled, and as little manured, as any in the coun- 
try — and that it is still the richest and most valuable 
of all our old cleared land. 

The fertile but narrow strips along the banks of our 
rivers, (which form the small portion of our highland 
of first rate quality,) seldom extend far w^ithout exhi- 
biting spots in which shells are visible, so that the eye 
alone is sufficient to prove the soil of such places to be 
calcareous. The similarity of natural growth, and of 
all other marks of character are such, that the observer 
might very naturally infer that the former presence 
of shells had given the same valuable qualities to all 
these soils — but that they had so generally rotted, and 
been incorporated with the other earths, that they re- 
mained visible only in a few places, where they had 
been most abundant. The accuracy of this inference 
will hereafter be examined. 

The natural growth of the shelly soils, (and of those 
adjacent of similar value,) is entirely different from 
that of the great body of our lands. Whatever tree 
thrives well on the one, is seldom found on the other 
class of soils — or if found, it shows plainly by its im- 



44 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

perfect and stunted condition, on how unfriendly a 
soil it is placed. To the rich river margins are almost 
entirely confined the black or wild locust, hackberry 
or sugar nut tree, and papaw. The locust is with great 
difficulty eradicated, or the newer growths kept under 
on cultivated lands, and from the remarkable rapidity 
with which it springs up, and increases in size, it forms 
a serious obstacle to the cultivation of the river banks. 
Yet on the woodland only a mile or two from the 
river, not a locust is to be seen. On shelly soils, pines 
and broom grass cannot thrive, and are rarely able to 
maintain the most sickly growth. 

Some may say that these striking differences of 
growth do not so much show a difference in the con- 
stitution of the soils, as in their state of fertility — or 
that one class of the plants above named delights in 
rich, and the other, in poor land. No plant prefers 
poor to rich soil — can thrive better on a scarcity of 
food, than with an abundant supply. Pine, broom 
grass, and sorrel delight in a class of soils that are 
generally unproductive — but not on account of their 
poverty, for all these plants show, by the greater or 
less vigour of their growth, the abundance or scarcity 
of vegetable matter in the soil. But on this class of 
soils, no quantity of vegetable manure could make 
locusts flourish, though they will grow rapidly on a 
calcareous hillside, from which all the soil capable of 
supporting other plants, has been washed away. 

In thus describing and distinguishing soils by their 
growth, let me not be understood as extending those 
rules to other soils and climates than our own. It is 
well established that changes of kind in successive 
growths of timber have occurred in other places, with- 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 45 

out any known cause — and a difference of climate will 
elsewhere produce effects, which here would indicate 
a change of soil. 

Some rare exceptions to the general fertility of shelly 
lands are found where the proportion of calcareous 
earth is in great excess. Too much of this ingredient 
causes even a greater degree of sterility than its total 
absence. This cause of barrenness is very common in 
France and England (on chalk soils,) and very exten- 
sive tracts are not worth the expense of cultivation, 
or improvement. The few small spots that are ren- 
dered barren here, are seldom (if ever) so affected by 
the excess of oyster or muscle shells in the soil. These 
effects generally are caused by beds of fossil sea shells, 
which in some places reach the surface, and are thus 
exposed to the plough. These spots are not often more 
than thirty feet across, and their nature is generally 
evident to the eye ; and if not, is so easily determined 
by chemical tests, as to leave no reason for confounding 
the injurious and beneficial effects of calcareous earth. 
This exception to the general fertilizing effect of this 
ingredient of our soils, would scarcely require naming, 
but to mark what might be deemed an apparent con- 
tradiction. But this exception, and its cause, must be 
kept in mind, and considered as always understood 
and admitted, throughout all my remarks, and which 
therefore it is not necessary to name specially, w^hen 
the general qualities of calcareous earth are spoken of. 

In the beginning of this chapter, I advanced the 
important fact that none of our poor soils contain 
naturally the least particle of calcareous earth. So far, 
this is supported merely by my assertion — and all 
those who have studied agriculture in books, will 



46 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

require strong proof before they can give credit to 
the existence of a fact, which is either unsupported, 
or indirectly denied, by all written authority. Others, 
who have not attended to such descriptions of soils in 
general, may be too ready to admit the truth of my 
assertion — because, not knowing the opinions on this 
subject, heretofore received and undoubted, they would 
not be aware of the importance of their admission. 

It is true that no author has said expressly tiiat 
every soil contains calcareous earth. Neither has any 
one stated that every soil contains some silicious, or 
aluminous earth. But the manner in which each has 
treated of soils and their constituent parts, would cause 
their readers to infer, that neither of these three earths 
is ever entirely wanting — or at least that the entire 
absence of the calcareous, is as rare as the absence of 
silicious or aluminous earth. Nor are we left to gather 
tliis opinion solely from indirect testimony, as the 
following examples, from the highest authorities, will 
prove. Davy says, "four earths generally abound in 
soils, the aluminous, the silicious, the calcareous, and 
tlie magnesian"* — and the soils of which he states the 
constituent parts, obtained by chemical analysis, as 
well as those reported by Kirwan, and by Young, all 
contain some proportion (and generally a large pro- 
portion) of calcareous earth, t Kirwan states the com- 
ponent parts of a soil which contained thirty-one per 
cent, of calcareous earth, and he supposes that pro- 
portion neither too little nor too much. :{: Young men- 

• Davy's Agr. Chem. Lecture 1. 

f Agr. Chem. Lect. 4. — Kirwan on Manures — and Young's Prize 
Essay on Manures. 
^ Kirwan on Manures, Article Clayey Loam. 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 47 

tions soils of extraordinary fertility containing seven- 
teen and twenty per cent., besides others with smaller 
proportions of calcareous earth — and says that Berg- 
man found thirty per cent, in the best soil he examin- 
ed.* Rozier speaks still more strongly for the general 
diffusion, and large proportions of this ingredient of 
soils. In his general description of earths and soils, he 
gives examples of the supposed composition of the 
three grades of soils which he designates by the terms 
rich, good, and middling soils: to the first class he 
assigns a proportion of one-tenth, to the second, one- 
fourth, and to the last, one-half of its amount, of cal- 
careous earth. The fair interpretation of the passage 
is that the author considered these large proportions as 
general, in France — and he gives no intimation of any 
soil entirely without calcareous earth, t 

American writers also suppose the general presence 
of this ingredient of soil : but their opinions on this 
subject are merely echos of European descriptions of 
soils. They seem neither to have suspected that so 
important a difference existed, nor to have made the 



* Young's Essay on Manures. 

f " Composition of soils. Examples of the various composition of 
soils : Rich soil ; silicious earth, 2 parts; aluminous, 6; calcareous, 
1 ; veg-etable earth, [humus'] 1 ; in all, 10 parts. Good soil; silici- 
ous, 3 parts ; aluminous 4 ; calcareous 2^ ; vegetable earth, J of 
1 part ; in all, 10 parts. Middling soil [sol mediocre;'] silicious, 4 
parts 5 aluminous, 1 ; calcareous, 5 parts, less by some atoms of 
vegetable earth ; in all, 10 parts. AVe see tiiat it is tlie largest pro- 
portion of aluminous earth, that constitutes tlie greatest excellence 
of soils ; and we know that independently of tlieir harmony of 
composition, they require a sufficiency of depth." — From the Arti- 
cle ** Terres'^ in the " Cours Complet d'Agriculture Pratique, par 
L'Abbe Rozier, 1815. 



48 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

least investigation by actual analysis, to sustain the 
false character thus given to the soils of our country. 
[Appendix. D.] 

With my early impressions of the nature and com- 
position of soils, derived from the general descriptions 
given in books, it was with surprise, and some distrust, 
that when first attempting to analyze soils, in 1817, I 
found most specimens destitute of calcareous earth. 
The trials were repeated with care and accuracy, on 
soils from various places — until I felt authorized to 
assert without fear of contradiction, that no naturally 
poor soil, below the Falls, contains the smallest pro- 
portion of calcareous earth. Nor do I believe that any 
exception to this peculiarity of constitution can be 
found in any poor soil above the Falls : but though 
these are far more extensive and important in other 
respects, they are beyond the district, within the limits 
of which I propose to confine my investigation. 

These results are highly important, whether con- 
sidered merely as serving to establish my proposition, 
or as showing a radical difference between most of our 
soils, and those of the best cultivated parts of Europe. 
Putting aside my argument to establish a particular 
theory of improvement, the ascertained fact of the 
universal absence of calcareous earth in our poor soils 
leads to this conclusion : that profitable as calcareous 
manures have been found to be in countries where the 
soils are generally calcareous in some degree, they 
must be far more so on our soils that are quite desti- 
tute of that necessary earth. 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 49 



CHAPTER V. 

RESULTS OP THE CHEMICAL EXAMINATIONS OP VARI- 
OUS SOILS. 

Proposition 2. Contmued. 

The certainty of any results of chemical analysis 
would be doubted by most persons who have paid no 
attention to the means employed for such operations : 
and their incredulity will be the more excusable, when 
such results are reported by one knowing very little 
of the science of chemistry, and whose limited know- 
ledge was gained without aid or instruction, and was 
sought solely with the view of pursuing this investi- 
gation. Appearing under such disadvantages, it is 
therefore the more incumbent on me to show my claim 
to accuracy, or so to explain my method, as to enable 
others to detect its errors, if any exist. To analyze a 
specimen of soil completely, requires a degree of 
scientific acquirement and practical skill, to which I 
make no pretension. But merely to ascertain the ab- 
sence of calcareous earth — or if present, to find its 
quantity — requires but little skill, and less science. 

The methods recommended by different agricultural 
chemists for ascertaining the proportion of calcareous 
earth in soils, agree in all material points. Their pro- 
cess will be described, and made as plain as possible. 
A specimen of soil of convenient size is dried, pound- 
ed, and weighed, and then thrown into muriatic acid, 
diluted with three or four times its quantity of water. 
E 



50 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

The acid combines with, and dissolves the lime of the 
calcareous earth, and its other ingredient, the carbonic 
acidf being disengaged, rises through the liquid in the 
form of gas, or air, and escapes with efl'ervescence. 
After the mixture has been well shaken, and has stood 
until all effervescence is over, (the fluid still being 
somewhat acid to the taste,) the whole is poured into 
a piece of blotting paper folded so as to fit within a 
glass funnel. The fluid containing the dissolved lime 
passes through the paper, leaving behind the clay and 
silicious sand, and any other solid matter ; over which 
pure water is poured and passed off* several times, so 
as to wash off" all remains of the dissolved lime. These 
filtered washings are added to the solution, to all of 
which is then poured a solution of carbonate of pot- 
ash. The two dissolved salts thus thrown together, 
{muriate of lime, composed of muriatic acid and lime 
— and carbonate of potash, composed of carbonic acid 
and potash,) immediately decompose each other, and 
form two new combinations. The muriatic acid leaves 
the lime, and combines with the potash, for which it 
has a stronger attraction — and the muriate of potash 
thus formed, being a soluble salt, remains dissolved 
and invisible in the water. The lime and carbonic acid 
being in contact, when let loose by their former part- 
ners, instantly unite, and form carbonate of lime, or 
calcareous earth, which being insoluble, falls to the 
bottom, is separated by filtering paper, is washed, 
dried, and weighed, and thus shows the proportion 
contained by the soil.* 

* More full directions for the analysis of soils may be found in 
Kirwan*s Essay on Manures, Rozier's Dietionary, and especially in 
Davy's Agricultural Chemistry. 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 51 

In this process, the carbonic acid which first com- 
posed part of the calcareous earth, escapes into the air, 
and another supply is afterwards furnished from the 
decomposition of the carbonate of potash. But this 
change of one of its ingredients does not alter the quan- 
tity of the calcareous earth, which is always composed 
of certain invariable proportions of its two component 
parts; and when all the lime has been precipitated as 
above directed, it will necessarily be combined with 
precisely its first quantity of carbonic acid. 

This operation is so simple, and the means for con- 
ducting it so easy to obtain, that it will generally be 
the most convenient mode for finding the proportion 
of calcareous earth in those manures that are known 
to contain it abundantly, and where an error of a few 
grains cannot be very material. But if a very accurate 
result is necessary, this method will not serve, on ac- 
count of several causes of error which always occur. 
Should no calcareous earth be present in a soil thus 
analyzed, the muriatic acid will take up a small quan- 
tity of aluminous earth, which will be precipitated by 
the carbonate of potash, and without further investiga- 
tion, would be considered as so much calcareous earth. 
If any compounds of lime and vegetable acids are pre- 
sent, (which for reasons hereafter to be stated, I be- 
lieve to be not uncommon in soils,) some portion of 
them may be dissolved, and appear in the result as 
carbonate of lime, though not an atom of that sub- 
stance was in the soiL Thus, every soil examined by 
this method of precipitation, will yield some small re- 
sult of what would appear as calcareous earth, though 
actually destitute of such an ingredient The inaccu- 



52 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

racies of this method were no doubt known (though 
passed over without notice) by Davy, and other men 
of science who have recommended its use : but as they 
considered calcareous earth merely as one of the earthy 
ingredients of soil, operating mechanically, (as do sand 
and clay,) on the texture of the soil, they would 
scarcely suppose that a difference of a grain or two 
could materially affect the practical value of an analy- 
sis, or the character of the soil under examination.* 

The pneumatic apparatus proposed by Davy,t as 
another means for knowing the proportion of calcare- 
ous earth, in soils, is liable to none of these objections ; 
and when some other causes of errors peculiar to this 
method, are known and guarded against, its accuracy 
is almost perfect, in ascertaining the quantity of cal- 
careous earth — to which substance alone, its use is li- 
mited. The correctness of this mode of analysis de- 
pends on two well established facts in Chemistry — 
1st. That the component parts of calcareous earth al- 
ways bear the same proportion to each other — and 
these proportions are as forty-three parts (by weight) 
of carbonic acid, to fifty-seven of lime. 2nd. That the 
carbonic acid gas which two grains of calcareous earth 

* '* Chalks, calcareous marls, or powdered limestone, ad merely 
*' by forming a useful earthy ingredient in the soil, and their effica- 
"cy is proportioned to the deficiency of calcareous matter, which 
•• in larger or smaller quantities seems to be an essentia^ ingredient 
** of all fertile soils,- necesss^ry perhaps to their proper texture, and 
** as an ingredient in the organs of plants/* [Davy*s Agr. Chem. 
page 21 — and further on he says] "Chalk and marl or carbonate 
** of lime only improve the texture of a soil, or its relation to absorp- 
**tion; it acts merely as one of its earthy ingredients." 

■\ See the plate and description in Lecture fourth of Agricultural 
Chemistry. 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 53 

will yield, is equal in bulk to one ounce of fresh water.* 
The process with this apparatus disengages, confines, 
and measures the gas evolved — and for every measure 
equal to the bulk of an ounce of water, the operator 
has only to allow two grains of calcareous earth in the 
soil acted on. It is evident that the result can indi- 
cate the presence of lime in no other combination ex- 
cept that which forms calcareous earth — nor any other 
earth, except carbonate of magnesia, which might be 
mistaken for calcareous earth, but which is too rare, 
and occurs in proportions too small, to cause any ma- 
terial error. 

But if it is only desired to know whether calcareous 
earth is entirely wanting in any soil — or to test my 
assertion that so great a proportion of our soils are of 
that character — it may be done with far more ease than 
by either of the foregoing methods, and without appa- 
ratus of any kind. Let a handful of the soil (without 
drying or weighing) be thrown into a large drinking 
glass, containing enough of pure water to cover the 
soil about two inches. Stir it until all the lumps have 
disappeared, and the water has certainly taken the 
place of all the atmospheric air which the soil had in- 
closed. Remove any vegetable fibres, or froth, from 
the surface of the liquid, so as to have it clear. Then 
pour in gently about a table spoonful of undiluted mu- 
riatic acid, which by its greater weight will sink, and 
penetrate the soil, without any agitation being neces- 
sary for that purpose. If any calcareous earth is pre- 
sent, it will quickly begin to combine with the acid, 
throwing oflf its carbonic acid in gas, which cannot fail 
to be observed as it escapes, as the gas from only eight 

• Agr. Chem. 
E 2 



54 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

grains, is equal in bulk to a gill measure. Indeed, the 
product of only a single grain of calcareous earth, 
would be abundantly plain to the eye of a careful ope- 
rator, though it might be the whole amount of gas from 
two thousand grains of soil. If no effervescence is 
seen, even after adding more acid and gently stirring 
the mixture, then it is absolutely certain that the soil 
contained not the smallest portion of carbonate of lime 
— nor of the only other substance which might be mis- 
taken for it, the carbonate of magnesia. 

The examinations of all the soils that will be here 
mentioned, were made in the pneumatic apparatus, 
except some of those which evidently evolved no gas, 
and when no other result was required. As calcareous 
earth is plainly visible to the eye in all shelly soils, 
they only need examination to as3ertain its proportion. 
A few examples will show what proportions we may 
find, and how greatly they vary, even in soils appa- 
rently of equal value. 

1. Soil, a black clayey loam, from the top of the 
high knoll at the end of Coggin's Point, on James 
River, containing fragments of muscle shells through- 
out. Never manured, and supposed to have been un- 
der scourging cultivation and close grazing from the 
first settlement of the country : still capable of produc- 
ing twenty-five or thirty bushels of corn — and the 
soil well suited to wheat. One thousand grains, clear- 
ed by a fine sieve of all coarse shelly matter, (as none 
can act on the soil until minutely divided,) yielded 
sixteen ounce measures of carbonic acid gas, which 
showed the finely divided calcareous earth to be thir- 
ty-two grains. 

2. One thousand grains of similar soil from another 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 55 

part of the same field, treated in the same manner, gave 
twenty-four grains of finely divided calcareous earth. 

3. From the east end of a small island, at the end 
of Coggin's Point, surrounded by the river, and tide 
marsh. Soil, dark brown loam, much lighter than the 
preceding specimens, though not sandy — under like 
exhausting cultivation — then capable of bringing thirty 
to thirty-five bushels of corn — not a good wheat soil, 
ten or twelve bushels being probably a full crop. One 
thousand grains yielded eight grains of coarse shelly 
matter, and eighty-two of finely divided calcareous 
earth. 

4. From a small spot of sandy soil, almost bare of 
vegetation, and incapable of producing any grain, 
though in the midst of very rich land, and cleared but 
a few years. Some small fragments of fossil sea shells 
being visible, proved this barren spot to be calcareous, 
which induced its examination. Four hundred grains 
yielded eighty-seven of calcareous earth — nearly 
twenty-two per cent. This soil was afterwards dug 
and carried out as manure. 

5. Black friable loam, from Indian Fields, on York 
River. The soil was a specimen of a field of consider- 
able extent, mixed throughout with oyster shells. 
Though light and mellow, the soil did not appear to 
be sandy. Rich, durable, and long under exhausting 
cultivation. 

1260 grains of soil yielded 
168 of coarse shelly matter, separated mecha- 

nically, 
8 finely divided calcareous earth. 

The remaining solid matter, carefully separated, (by 
agitation and settling in water,) consisted of 



56 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

130 grains of fine clay, black with putrescent matter, 
and which lost more than one-fourth of its 
weight by being exposed to a red heat, 
875 white sand, moderately fine, 

20 very fine sand, 

36 lost in the process. 



1061 



6. Oyster shell soil of the best quality from the farm 
of Wills Cowper Esq. on Nansemond River — never 
manured, and supposed to have been cultivated in 
corn as often as three years in four, since the first set- 
tlement of the country — now yields (by actual mea- 
surement) thirty bushels of corn to the acre — but is 
very unproductive in wheat. A specimen taken from 
the surface to the depth of six inches, weighed alto- 
gether 
242 dwt., which consisted of 



126 of shells and their fragments, separated 

by the sieve, 
116 remaining finely divided soil. 



500 grains of the finely divided part, consisted of 

18 carbonate of lime, 

330 silicious sand — none very coarse, 

94 impalpable aluminous and silicious earth, 

35 putrescent vegetable matter — none coarse 

or unrotted, 
23 loss. 



500 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 57 

It is unnecessary to cite any particular trials of our 
poor soils, as it has been stated that all are entirely 
destitute of calcareous earth, excluding the rare, but 
well marked exceptions of its great excess — of which 
an example has been given in the soil marked 4, in 
the foregoing examinations. 

Unless then I am mistaken in supposing that these 
facts are universally true, the certain results of chemi- 
cal analysis completely establish these general rules — 
viz. 

That all calcareous soils are naturally fertile and du- 
rable in a very high degree — and 

That all soils naturally poor are entirely destitute of 
calcareous earth. 

It then can scarcely be denied that calcareous earth 
must be the cause of the fertility of the one class of 
soils, and that the want of it produces the poverty of 
the other. Qualities that always thus accompany each 
other, cannot be otherwise than cause and effect. If 
further proof is wanting, it can be safely promised to 
be furnished when the practical application of calca- 
reous manures to poor soils will be treated of, and their 
effects stated. 

These deductions are then established as to all cal- 
careous soils, and all poor soils — which descriptions 
comprise nine-tenths of all. This alone would open a 
wide field for the practical exercise of the truths we 
have reached. But still there remain strong objections 
and stubborn facts opposed to the complete proof of the 
proposition now under consideration, and consequently 
to the theory which that proposition is intended to 
support. The whole difficulty will be apparent at once 
when I now proceed to state that nearly all of our best 



58 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

soils, very little if at all inferior to the smaller portion 
of shelly lands, are as destitute of calcareous earth as 
the poorest. So far as I have examined, this deficiency 
is as general in the richest alluvial lands of the upper 
country — and what will be deemed by some as incredi- 
ble, by far the greater part of the rich limestone soils 
between the Blue Ridge and Alleghany, are equally 
destitute of calcareous earth. These facts were not 
named before, to avoid embarrassing the discussion of 
other points — nor can they now be explained, and re- 
conciled with my proposition, except through a cir- 
cuitous and apparently digressive course of reasoning. 
They have not been kept out of view, nor slurred 
over, to v^eaken their force, and are now presented in 
all their strength. These difficulties will be consider- 
ed, and removed, in the following chapters. 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 59 



CHAPTER VI. 

CHEMICAL EXAMINATION OF RICH SOILS CONTAINING 
NO CALCAREOUS EARTH. 

Proposition 2. Continued. 

Under common circumstances, when any disputant 
admits facts that seem to contradict his own reasoning, 
such admission is deemed abundant evidence of their 
existence. But though placed exactly in this situation, 
the facts admitted by me are so opposed to all that 
scientific agriculturists have taught us to expect, that 
it is necessary for me to show the grounds on which 
my admission rests. Few would have believed in the 
absence of calcareous earth in all our poor soils — and 
far more strange is it that the same deficiency should 
extend to such rich soils as some that will be cited. 

The following specimens, taken from well known 
and very fertile soils, were found to contain no cal- 
careous earth. Many trials of other rich soils have 
yielded like results — and indeed, I have never found 
calcareous earth in any soil below the Falls, in which, 
or near which, some particles of shells were not visi- 
ble. 

1. Soil from Eppes' Island, which lies in James 
River near City Point ; light and friable (but not sili- 
cious) brown loam, rich and durable. The surface is 
not many feet above the highest tides, and like most 
of the best river lands, this tract seems to have been 
formed by alluvion many ages ago, but which may be 



^0 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

termed recent^ when compared to the general forma- 
tion of the tide-water district. 

2. Black silicious loam from the celebrated lands on 
Back River, near Hampton. 

3. Soil from rich land on Pocoson River, York 
county. 

4. Black clay vegetable soil, from a fresh-water tide 
marsh on James River — formed by the most recent 
alluvion. 

5. Alluvial soil of first rate fertility above the Falls 
of James River — dark brown clay loam, from the valu- 
able and extensive body of bottom land belonging to 
General J. H. Cocke of Fluvanna. 

The most remarkable facts of the absence of calca- 
reous earth, are to be found in the limestone soils, be- 
tween the Blue Ridge and Alleghany mountains. Of 
these, I will report all that I have examined, and none 
contained any calcareous earth, unless the contrary is 
stated.* 

1 to 6. Limestone soils selected in the neighbour- 
hood of Lexington, Virginia, by Professor Graham, 
with the view of enabling me to investigate this sub- 
ject. All the specimens were from first rate soils, 
except one, which was from land of inferior value. 
One of the specimens, Mr. Graham's description stated 

* Before the first of these trials was made, I supposed (as pro- 
bably most other persons do,) that limestone soil was necessarily 
calcareous^ and in a high degree. It is difficult to get rid of this 
Impression entirely — and it may seem a contradiction in terms to 
say that a limestone soil is not calcareous. This I cannot avoid : I 
must take the term limestone soil as custom has already fixed it. But 
it should not be extended to any soils except those which are so 
near to limestone rock, as in some measure to be thereby affected 
in their qualities and value. 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 61 

to be 'Uaken from a piece of land so rocky [with 
<< limestone] as to be unfit for cultivation — at least 
<< with the plough. I could scarcely select a specimen 
''which I would expect to be more strongly impreg- 
<'nated with calcareous earth." — This specimen, by 
two separate trials, yielded only one grain of calcareous 
earth, from one thousand of soil. The other six soils 
contained none. The same result was obtained from 

7. A specimen of alluvial land on North River, 
near Lexington. 

8. Brown loam from the Sweet Spring valley, re- 
markable for its extraordinary productiveness and du- 
rability. It is of alluvial formation, and before it was 
drained, must have been often covered and saturated 
by the Sweet Spring and other mineral waters, which 
hold lime in solution. The surrounding highland is 
limestone soil. Of this specimen, taken from about 
two hundred yards below the Sweet Spring, from land 
long cultivated every year, three hundred and sixty 
grains yielded not a particle of calcareous earth. It 
contained an unusually large proportion of oxide of 
iron, though my imperfect means enabled me to se- 
parate and collect only eight grains, the process evi- 
dently wasting several more. 

About a mile lower down, drains were then making 
(in 1826) to reclaim more of this rich valley from the 
overflowing waters. Another specimen was taken from 
the bottom of a ditch just opened, eighteen inches 
below the surface. It was a black loam, and exhibited 
to the eye some very diminutive fresh-water shells, 
(perri winkles, about one-tenth of an inch in length,) 
and many of their broken fragments. This gave, from 
two hundred grains, seventy-four of calcareous earth. 
F 



62 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

But this cannot fairly be placed on the same footing 
with the other soils, as it had obviously been once the 
bottom of a stream, or lake, and the collection and de- 
posit of so large and unusual a proportion of calcareous 
matter, seemed to be of animal formation. Both these 
specimens were selected at my request by one of our 
best farmers, and who also furnished a written descrip- 
tion of the soils, and their situation. 

9. High land in wood, west of Union, Monroe 
county. Soil, a black clay loam, lying on, but not 
intermixed at the surface with limestone rock. Subsoil, 
yellowish clay. The rock at this place, a foot below 
the surface. Principal growth, sugar maple, white 
walnut, and oak. This and the next specimen are 
from one of the richest tracts of highland that I have 
seen. 

10. Soil similar to the last and about two hundred 
yards distant. Here the limestone showed above the 
surface, and the specimen was taken from between two 
large masses of fixed rock, and about a foot distant 
from each. 

11. Black rich soil, from woodland between the 
Hot and Warm Springs, in Bath county. The speci- 
men was part of what was in contact with a mass of 
limestone. 

12. Soil from the western foot of the Warm Spring 
Mountain, on a gentle slope between the Court House 
and the road, and aboul one hundred and fifty yards 
from the Warm Bath. Rich brown loam, containing 
many small pieces of limestone, but no finely divided 
calcareous earth. 

13. A specimen taken two or three hundred yards 
from the last, and also at the foot of the mountain. 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 63 

Soil, a rich black loam, full of small fragments of lime- 
stone of different sizes, between that of a nutmeg and 
small shot. The land had never been broken up for 
cultivation. One thousand grains contained two hun- 
dred and forty grains of small stone or gravel, mostly 
limestone, separated mechanically, and sixty-nine 
grains of finely divided calcareous earth. 

14. Black loamy clay, from the excellent wheat 
soil adjoining the town of Bedford in Pennsylvania : 
the specimen taken from beneath and in contact with 
limestone. One thousand grains yielded less than one 
grain of calcareous earth. 

15. A specimen from within a few yards of the last, 
but not in contact with limestone, contained no calca- 
reous earth : neither did the red clay subsoil, six inches 
below the surface. 

16. Very similar soil, but much deeper, adjoining 
the principal street of Bedford — the specimen taken 
from eighteen inches below the surface, and adjoining 
a mass of limestone. A very small disengagement of 
gas indicated the presence of calcareous earth — but 
certainly less than one grain in one thousand, and per- 
haps not half that quantit}^. 

17. Alluvial soil on the Juniata, adjoining Bed- 
ford — 

IS. Alluvial vegetable soil near the stream flowing 
from all the Saratoga mineral springs, and necessarily 
often covered and soaked by those waters, and 

19. Soil taken from the bed of the same stream — 
neither contained any portion of carbonate of lime. 

Thus it appears, that of nineteen specimens of soils, 
only four contained calcareous earth, and three of these 
four, in exceedingly small proportions. It should be 



64 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

remarked that all these were selected from situations, 
which from their proximity to calcareous rock, or ex- 
posure to calcareous waters, were supposed most likely 
to present highly calcareous soils. If five hundred 
specimens had been taken without choice, from what 
are commonly limestone soils, (merely because they 
are not very distant from limestone rock, or springs 
of limestone water,) the analysis of that whole num- 
ber would be less likely to show calcareous earth, than 
the foregoing short list. I therefore feel justified, from 
my own few examinations, and unsupported by any 
other authority, to pronounce that calcareous earth will 
yery rarely be found in any soils between the falls of 
our rivers, and the navigable western w^aters. In a 
few specimens of some of the best soils from the bor- 
ders of the Mississippi and its tributary rivers, I found 
calcareous earth present in all— but in small propor- 
tions, and in no case exceeding two per cent. 

The foregoing details, respecting limestone lands, 
may perhaps be considered an unnecessary digression, 
in a treatise on the soils of the tide-water district. But 
the analysis of limestone soils furnishes the strongest 
evidence of the remarkable and novel fact of the gene- 
ral absence of calcareous earth— and the information 
thence derived, will be used to sustain the following 
steps of my argument. All the examinations of soils 
in this chapter concur in opposing the general applica- 
tion of the proposition that the deficiency of calcareous 
earth is the cause of the sterility of our soils. Having 
stated the objection in all its force, I shall now pro- 
ceed to inquire into its causes, and endeavour to dis- 
pel its apparent opposition to my doctrine. 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 65 



CHAPTER VII. 

PROOFS OP THE EXISTENCE OF ACID AND NEUTRAL 

SOILS. 

Proposition 2. Continued. 

Sufficient evidence has been adduced to prove 
that many of our most fertile and valuable soils are 
destitute of calcareous earth : but it does not necessa- 
rily follow that such has always been their composi- 
tion — or that they may not now contain lime combined 
with some other acid than the carbonic. That this is 
really the case, I shall now offer proofs to establish — 
and not only maintain this position with regard to 
those valuable soils, but shall contend that lime in 
some proportion, combined with vegetable acid, is 
present in every soil capable of supporting vegetation. 

But while I shall endeavour to maintain these posi- 
tions, without asking or admitting any exception, let 
me not be understood as asserting that the original in- 
gredient of calcareous earth was always the sole cause 
of the fertility of any particular soil, or that a know- 
ledge of the proportion contained, would serve to 
measure the capacity of the soil for improvement. 
Calcareous soils not differing materially in qualities or 
value, often exhibit a remarkable difference in their 
respective proportions of calcareous earth : so that it 
would seem, that a small quantity, aided by some other 
unknown agent, may give as much capacity for im- 

f2 



66 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

provement, and ultimately produce as much fertility, 
as ten times that proportion, under other circumstances. 

In all naturally poor soils, producing freely, in their 
virgin state, pine and whortleberry, and sorrel after 
cultivation, I suppose to have been formed some vege- 
table acid, which, after taking up whatever small 
quantity of lime might have been present, still remains 
in excess in the soil, and nourishes in the highest de- 
gree the plants named above, but is a poison to all 
useful crops ; and effectually prevents such soils be- 
coming rich, from either natural or artificial applica- 
tions of putrescent manures. 

In a neutral soil, I suppose calcareous earth to have 
been sufficiently abundant to produce a high degree of 
fertility — but that it has been decomposed, and the 
limo taken up, by the gradual formation of vegetable 
acid, until the lime and the acid neutralize and balance 
each other, leaving no considerable excess of either. 
Such are all our fertile soils that are not calcareous. 

These suppositions remain to be proved, in all their 
parts. 

No opinion has been yet advanced that is less sup- 
ported by good authority, or to which more general 
opposition may be expected, than that which supposes 
the existence of acid soils. The term sour soil is fre- 
quently used by farmers, but in so loose a manner as 
to deserve no consideration : it has been thus applied 
to any cold and ungrateful land, without intending that 
the term should be literally understood, and perhaps 
without attaching to its use any precise meaning what- 
ever. Dundonald only, of all those who have applied 
chemistry to agriculture, has asserted the existence of 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 67 

vegetable acid in soils :* but he has offered no analysis^ 
nor any other evidence to establish the fact — and his 
opinion has received no confirmation, nor even the 
slightest notice, from later and more able investigators 
of the chemical characters of soils. Kirwan and Davy 
profess to enumerate all the common ingredients of 
soils, and it is not intimated by either, that vegetable 
acid is one of them. Even this tacit denial by Dav}', 
more strongly opposes the existence of vegetable acid, 
than it is supported by the opinion of Dundonald, or 
any of those writers on agriculture who have admitted 
its existence. Grisenthwaite, a late writer on agricul- 
tural chemistry, and who has the advantage of knowing 
the discoveries, and comparing the opinions of all his 
predecessors, expressly denies the possibility of any 
acid existing in soils. His "New Theory of Agricul- 
ture" contains the following passage : "Chalk has been 
" recommended as a substance calculated to correct the 
" sourness of land. It would surely have been a wise 
" practice to have previously ascertained this existence 
"of acid, and to have determined its nature, in order 
" that it might be effectually removed. The fact really 
" is, that no soil was ever yet found to contain any nota- 
" ble quantity of acid. The acetic and the carbonic are 
" the only two that are likely to be generated by any 
" spontaneous decomposition of animal or vegetable bo- 
" dies, and neither of them have any fixity when expos- 
" ed to the air." Thus, then, my doctrine is deprived of 
even the feeble support it might have had from Dun- 
donald's mere opinion, if that opinion had not been 
contradicted by later and better authority : and the 

• Dundonald's Connexion of Chemistry and Agriculture. 



68 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

only support that I can look for, will be in the facts 
and arguments that I shall be able to adduce. 

I am not prepared to question what Grisenthwaite 
states as a chemical fact, 'Uhat no soil was ever yet 
found to contain any notable quantity of acid." No 
soil examined by me for this purpose, gave any evi- 
dence of the presence of uncombined acid. Still, how- 
ever, the term acid may be applied with propriety to 
soils, in which growing vegetables continually receive 
acid from the decomposition of others, (for which no 
"fixity" is requisite,) or in which acid is present, not 
free, but combined with some base, by which it is 
readily yielded to promote, or retard, the growth of 
plants in contact with it. It will be sufficient for my 
purpose to show that certain soils contain some sub- 
stance, or possess some quality, which promotes almost 
exclusively the growth of acid plants — that this power 
is strengthened by adding known vegetable acids to 
the soil — and is totally removed by the application of 
calcareous manures, which would necessarily destroy 
any acid, if it were present. Leaving it to chemists 
to determine the nature and properties of this substance, 
I merely contend for its existence and effects : and the 
cause of these effects, whatever it may be, for the 
want of a better name, I shall call acidity. 

The proofs now to be offered in support of the ex- 
istence of acid and neutral soils, however weak each 
may be when considered alone, yet when taken in 
connexion, will together form a body of evidence not 
easil}^ to be resisted. 

1st Proof. Pine and common sorrel have leaves well 
known to be acid to the taste : and their growth is 
favoured by the soils which I suppose to be acid, to 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 69 

an extent which would be thought remarkable in other 
plants on the richest soils. Except wild locust on the 
best river land, no growth can compare in rapidity 
with pines on soils naturally poor, and even greatly 
reduced by long cultivation. Pines usually stand so 
thick on old exhausted fields, that the increase of size 
in each plant is greatly retarded — but if the whole 
growth of an acre is estimated, it would probably ex- 
ceed in quantity that of the richest soils, of the same 
age and on the same space. Every cultivator of corn 
on poor light soil knows how rapidly sorrel* will cover 
his otherwise naked field, unless kept in check by 
continual tillage — and that to root it out, so as to pre- 
vent the like future labour, cannot be effected by any 
mode of cultivation whatever. This weed too is con- 
sidered far more hurtful to growing crops, than any 
other of equal size. Yet neither of these acid plants 
can thrive on the best lands. Sorrel cannot even live 
on a calcareous soil — and if a pine is sometimes found 
there, it has nothing of its usual elegant form, but 
seems as stunted and ill shaped as if it had always suf- 
fered for want of nourishment. Innumerable facts, 
of which these are examples, prove that these acid 
plants must derive from their favourite soil some kind 
of food peculiarly suited to their growth, and quite 
useless, if not hurtful, to cultivated crops. 

2. Dead acid plants are the most effectual in promot- 
ing the growth of living ones. When pine leaves are 

• Rumex acetosa. The wood sorrel {oxalis aceiocella) is of a very dif- 
ferent cliaracter. This prefers rich and calcareous soils, and I have 
seen it growing- on places calcareous to excess. It would seem, there- 
fore, that wood sorrel forms its acid from the atmosphere, and does 
not draw it from the soil, as is evidently the case with common sorrel. 



70 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

applied to a soil, whatever acid they contain is of 
course giv^en to that soil, for such time as circumstances 
permit it to retain its form, or peculiar properties. 
Such an application is often made on a large scale, by 
cutting down the second growth of pines, on land once 
under tillage, and suffering them to lie a year before 
clearing and cultivating the land. The invariable con- 
sequence of this course, is a growth of sorrel for one 
or two crops, so abundant and so injurious to the crops, 
as to more than balance any benefit derived by the 
soil, from the vegetable matter having been allowed to 
rot. From the general experience of this effect, most 
persons tend pine land as soon as cut down, after care- 
fully burning the whole of the heavy cover of leaves, 
both green and dry. Until within a few years, it was 
generally supposed that the leaves of pine were worth- 
less, if not hurtful, in all applications to cultivated 
land — which opinion doubtless was founded on such 
facts as have been just stated. But if they are used as 
litter for cattle, and heaped to ferment, the injurious 
quality of pine leaves is destroyed, and they become a 
valuable manure. This practice is but of recent origin 
— but is highly approved, and rapidly extending. 

On one of the washed and barren declivities (or 
galls) which are so numerous on all our farms, I had 
the small gullies packed full of green pine bushes, and 
then covered with the earth drawn from the equally 
barren intervening ridges, so as nearly to smooth the 
whole surface. The whole piece bore nothing previ- 
ously except a few scattered tufts of poverty grass, and 
dwarfish sorrel, all of which did not prevent the spot 
seeming quite bare at midsummer, if viewed at the dis- 
tance of one hundred yards. This operation was per- 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 71 

formed in February or March. The land was not 
cultivated, nor again observed until the second summer 
afterwards. At that time, the piece remained as bare 
as formerly, except along the filled gullies, which 
throughout the whole of their crooked courses, were 
covered by a thick and tall growth of sorrel, remarkably 
luxuriant for any situation, and which being bounded 
exactly by the width of the narrow gullies, had the 
appearance of some vegetable sown thickly in drills, 
and kept clean by tillage. So great an effect of this 
kind has not been produced within my knowledge — 
though facts of like nature and leading to the same 
conclusion, are of frequent occurrence. If small pines 
stajiding thinly over a broom grass old field, are cut 
down and left to lie, under every top will be found a 
patch of sorrel, before the leaves have all rotted. 

3. The growth of sorrel is not only peculiarly fa- 
voured by the application of vegetables containing acids 
already formed, but also by such matters as will form 
acid in the course of their decomposition. Farm-yard 
manure, and all other putrescent animal and vegetable 
substances, form acetic acid as their decomposition 
proceeds.* If heaps of rotting manure are left without 
being spread, in a field the least subject to produce sor- 
rel, a few weeks of growing weather will bring out 
that plant close around every heap — and for some time, 
it will continue to show more benefit from that rank 
manuring than any other grass. For several years my 
v^^inter-made manure was spread and ploughed in on 
land not cultivated until the next autumn, or the spring 
after. This practice was founded on the mistaken 

* Agr. Chem. page 187. 



7^ 0^ CALCAREOtJS MANtJRES. 

opinion, that it would prevent much of the usual ex- 
posure to evaporation and waste of the manure. One 
of the reasons which alone would have compelled me 
to abandon this absurd practice, was, that a crop of 
sorrel always followed, (even on good soils that before 
barely permitted a scanty growth to live,) which so 
injured the next grain crop as greatly to lessen the 
benefit from the manure. Sorrel unnaturally produced 
by such applications, does not infest the land longer 
than until we may suppose the acid to be removed by 
cultivation and other causes. 

It may be objected that my authorities prove only 
the formation of a single vegetable acid in soil, the 
acetic — that my facts show only the production of a 
single acid plant, sorrel — and that the acid which sor- 
rel contains is not the acetic, but the oxalic* From 
the application of acids to recently ploughed land, no 
acid plant except sorrel is made to grow, because that 
only can spring up speedily enough to arrest the fleet- 
ing nutriment. Poverty grass grows only on the same 
kinds of soil, and generally covers them after they 
have been a year free from a crop, but does not show 
sooner — and broom grass and pines require two years 
before their seeds will produce plants. But when pines 
begin to spread over the land, they soon put an end to 
the growth of all other plants, and are abundantly sup- 
plied with their acid food, from the dropping of their 
own leaves. Thus they may be first supplied with the 
vegetable acid ready formed in the leaves, and after- 
wards with the acetic acid, formed by their subsequent 
slow decomposition. It does not weaken my argu- 

• Agr. Chem. Lecture 3. 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 73 

ment, that the product of a plant is a vegetable acid 
diflferent from the one supposed to have nourished its 
growth. All vegetable acids (except the prussic) how- 
ever different in their properties, are composed of the 
same three elementary bodies, differing only in their 
proportions* — and consequently are all resolvable into 
each other. A little more, or a little less of one or the 
other of these ingredients, may change the acetic to the 
oxalic acid, and that to any other. We cannot doubt 
but that such simple changes may be produced by the 
chemical powers of vegetation, when others are effected, 
far more difficult for us to comprehend. The most 
tender and feeble organs, and the mildest juices, aided 
by the power of animal or vegetable life, are able to 
produce decompositions and combinations, which the 
chemist cannot explain, and which he would in vain 
attempt to imitate. 

4. This ingredient of soils which nourishes acid 
plants, also poisons cultivated crops. Plants have not 
the power of rejecting noxious fluids, but take up by 
tlieir roots every thing presented in a soluble form.t 
Thus the acid also enters the sap-vessels of cultivated 
plants, stunts their growth, and makes it impossible 
for them to attain that size and perfection, which their 
proper food would ensure, if it was presented to them 
without its poisonous accompaniment. When the 
poorest virgin woodland is cut down, it is covered 
and filled to excess with leaves and other rotted and 
rotting vegetable matters. Can a heavier vegetable 
manuring be desired? And as it completely rots during 

• Carbon, Oxygen and Hydrogen. Agr. Chem. Lecture 3, page 
78. 

f Agr. Chem. Lecture 6, page 186. 

G 



74 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

cultivation, must not it offer to the growing as abun- 
dant a supply of food as they can require? — Yet the 
best product obtained may be from ten to fifteen bush- 
els of corn, or five or six of wheat, soon to come down 
to half those quantities. If the noxious quality which 
causes such injury is an acid, it is as certain as any 
chemical truth whatever, that it will be neutralized, 
and its powers destroyed, by applying enough of cal- 
careous earth to the soil : and precisely such effects are 
found whenever that remedy is tried. On land thus 
relieved of this unceasing annoyance, the young corn 
no longer appears of a pale and sickly green, approach- 
ing to yellow, but takes immediately a deep healthy 
colour, by which it may readily be distinguished from 
any remaining in its former state, before there is any 
perceptible difference in size. The crop will produce 
fifty to one hundred per cent, more, the first year, be- 
fore its supply of food can possibly have been increased 
— and the soil is soon found not only cleared of sorrel, 
but incapable of producing it. I have anticipated these 
effects of calcareous manures, but they will hereafter 
be established beyond contradiction. 

5. The truth of the existence of either acid, or neu- 
tral soils, depends on the existence of the other — and 
to prove either, will necessarily establish both. If 
acid exists in soils, then wherever it meets with calca- 
reous earth, the two substances must combine and neu- 
tralize each other, so far as their proportions are pro- 
perly adjusted. On the other hand, if I can show that 
compounds of lime and vegetable acid are present in 
most soils, it follows inevitably that nature has pro- 
ided means by which soils can generally obtain this 
acid : and if the amount formed can balance the lime, 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 75 

the operation of the same causes can exceed that quan- 
tity, and leave an excess of free acid. From these 
premises will be deduced the following proofs. 

It has been stated (page 51) that the process recom- 
mended by chemists for finding the calcareous earth 
in soils was unfit for that purpose, because a precipi- 
tate was always obtained even when no calcareous 
earth, or carbonate of lime was present. Frequent 
trials have shown me that this precipitate is consider- 
ably more abundant from good soils than bad. The 
substance thus obtained from rich soils by solution and 
precipitation, in every case that I have tried, contains 
some calcareous earth, although the soil from which it 
was derived had none. The alkaline liquor from which 
the precipitate has been separated, we are told will, 
after boiling, let fall the carbonate of magnesia, if any 
had been in the soil : but when any notable deposit is 
thus obtained, it will often be found to consist more 
of carbonate of lime, than of magnesia. The follow- 
ing are examples of such products : 

One thousand grains of tide marsh soil (described 
page 60) acted on by muriatic acid in the pneumatic 
apparatus, gave out no carbonic acid gas, and there- 
fore could have contained no carbonate of lime. The 
precipitate obtained from the same weighed sixteen 
grains — which being again acted on by sulphuric acid, 
evolved as much gas as showed that three grains had 
been converted to carbonate of lime. 

Two hundred grains of alluvial soil from Saratoga 
Springs (page 63, No. 18,) containing no carbonate of 
lime, yielded a precipitate of twelve grains, of which 
three was carbonate of lime — and a deposit from the 



76 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

alkaline solution weighing six grains, four of which 
was carbonate of lime. 

Seven hundred grains of limestone soil from Bed- 
ford (part of the specimen marked 14, page 63,) con- 
tained about two-thirds of a grain of carbonate of lime 
— and its precipitate of twenty-eight grains, only yield- 
ed two grains: but the alkaline solution deposited 
eleven grains of the carbonates of lime and magnesia, 
of which at least five was of the former, as there re- 
mained seven and a half of solid matter, after the ac- 
tion of sulphuric acid.* 

From this process, there can be no doubt but that 
the soil contained a proportion of some salt of lime 
(or lime combined with some kind of acid) which being 
decomposed by and combined with the muriatic acid, 
was then precipitated, not in its first form, but in that 
of carbonate of lime — it being supplied with carbonic 
acid from the carbonate of potash, used to produce the 
precipitation. The proportions obtained in these cases 
were small ; but it does not follow that the whole 
quantity of lime contained in the soil was found. How- 
ever, to the extent of this small proportion of lime, is 

* The measurement of the carbonic acid gas evolved, was relied 
on to show the whole amount oi carbonates present — and sulphuric 
acid was used to distinguish between lime and magnesia, in the de- 
posit from the alkaline solution. If any alumine or magnesia had 
made part of the solid matter exposed to diluted sulphuric acid, 
the combinations formed would have been soluble salts, which 
would of course have remained dissolved and invisible in the fluid. 
Lime only of the four earths forms with sulphuric acid a substance 
but slightly soluble, and which therefore can be mostly separated 
in a solid form. The whole of this substance (sulphate of lime) 
cannot be obtained in this manner, as a part is always dissolved : 
but whatever is obtained, proves that at least two-thirds of that 
quantity of carbonate of lime had been present. 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 77 

proved clearly the presence of enough of some acid 
(and that not the carbonic) to combine with it. Neither 
could it have been the sulphuric, or the phosphoric 
acid : for though both the sulphate and phosphate of 
lime are in some soils, yet neither of these salts can 
be decomposed by muriatic acid. 

6. The strongest objection to the doctrine of neu- 
tral soils is, that if true, the salt formed by the com- 
bination of the lime and acid must often be present in 
such large proportions, that it is scarcely credible that 
its presence and nature should not have been discover- 
ed by any of the chemists who have analyzed soils. 
This difficulty I cannot remove : but it may be met 
(or neutralized, to borrow a figure from my subject,) 
by showing that an equal difficulty awaits those who 
may support the other side of the argument. The 
theory of geologists of the formation of soils from the 
decomposition, or disintegration of rocks, is received- 
as true by scientific agriculturists. The soils thus sup- 
posed to be formed, receive admixtures from each 
other, by means of difierent operations of nature, and 
after being more or less enriched by the decay of their 
own vegetable products, make the endless variety of 
existing soils.* But where a soil lying- on, and thus 
formed from any particular kind of rock, is so situated 
that it could not have been moved, or received consi- 
derable accessions from torrents, or other causes, then, 
according to this theory, the rock and the soil should 
be composed of the same materials — and such soils as 
the specimens marked 11 and 16 (pages 62 and 63) 

• Agr. Chem. p. 131. Also Treatise on Agriculture (by General 
Armstrong) in vol. i. of American Farmer. 

g2 



78 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

would be, like the rock they touched, nearly pure cal- 
careous earth. Such are the doctrines received and 
taught by Davy, or the unavoidable deductions from 
them. But without contending for the full extent of 
this theory of the formation of soils, (because I consi- 
der it almost entirely false,) every one must admit that 
soils thus situated, must have received in the lapse of 
ages, some accessions to their bulk, from the effects 
of frost, rain, sun, and air, on the limestone in contact 
with them. All limestone soils, properly so called, 
exhibit certain marked and peculiar characters of colour, 
texture, and products, which can only be derived from 
receiving into their composition more or less of the 
rock which lies beneath, or rises above their surface. 
This mixture will not be denied by any one who has 
observed limestone soils, and reasons fairly, whether 
his investigation begins with the causes or their effects. 
If then all this gain of calcareous earth remains in the 
soil, why is none, or almost none, discovered by accu- 
rate chemical analysis? Or, if it be supposed not pre- 
sent, nor yet changed in its chemical character, in 
what possible manner could a ponderous and insolu- 
ble earth have made its escape from the soil? To re- 
move this obstacle without admitting the operation of 
acid in making such soils neutral, will be attended 
with at least as much difficulty, as any arising from 
that admission being made. 

7. But we are not left entirely to conjecture that 
soils were once more calcareous than they now are, if 
chemical tests can be relied on to furnish proof. Acid 
soils that have received large quantities of calcareous 
earth as manure, after some time, will yield very little 
when analyzed. To a soil of this kind, full of vege- 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 



79 



table matter, I applied in 1818 and 1821 fossil shells 
at such a known and heavy rate as would have given 
to the soil (by calculation) at least three per cent, of 
calcareous earth, for the depth of five inches. Only 
a small portion of the shelly matter was finely divided 
when applied. Since the application of the greater 
part of this dressing, (only one-fourth having been 
laid on in 1818,) no more than six years had passed 
before the following examinations were made — and 
the cultivation of five crops in that time, three of 
which were horse-hoed, must have well mixed the 
calcareous earth with the soil. Three careful examina- 
tions gave the following results. 

No. 1. — 1000 grains yielded Ti of coarse calcareous 

earth. 



No. 2. 



And less than 


i of finely divid 




8 


1000 grains 


5 coarse, 

2 finely divided. 




7 


1500 grains 


15 coarse, 
2i finely divided 

17^ 



The specimens No. 1 and No. 2 were obtained by 
handfuls of soil from several places, (four in one case, 
and twelve in the other) mixing them well together, 
and then taking the samples for trial from the two 
parcels. On such land, when not recently ploughed, 
there will always be an over proportion of the pieces 
of shells on the surface, as the rains have settled the 



80 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

fine soil, and left exposed the coarse matters. On this 
account, in making these two selections, the upper half 
inch was first thrown aside, and the handful dug from 
below. No. 3 was taken from a spot showing a full 
average thickness of shells, and included the surface. 
I considered the three trials made as fairly as possible, 
to give a general average. Small as is the proportion 
of finely divided calcareous earth exhibited, it must 
have been increased by rubbing some particles from 
the coarse fragments, in the operation of separating 
them by a fine sieve. Indeed it may be doubted 
whether any proportion remained very finely divided 
^ — or in other words, whether it was not combined 
with acid, as fast as it was so reduced. But without 
the benefit of this supposition, the finely divided cal- 
careous earth in the three specimens, averaged only 
one and one-fourth grains to the thousand, which is 
one twenty-fourth of the quantity laid on: find the 
total quantity obtained, of coarse and fine, is eight 
grains in one thousand, or about one-fourth of the ori- 
ginal proportion. All the balance had changed its 
form, or otherwise disappeared in the few years that 
had passed since the application. 

The very small proportions of finely divided cal- 
careous earth compared to the coarse, in some shelly 
soils, furnish still stronger evidence of this kind. Of 
the York River soil, (described page 55, No. 5,) 
1260 grains, yielded of coarse calcareous 

parts, 168 grains. 

And of finely divided, - - 8 

1044 of the rich Nansemond soil, (No. 6,) 544 coarse. 

18 fine. 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. • 81 

As many of the shells and their fragments in these 
soils are in a mouldering state, it is incredible that the 
whole quantity of finely divided particles derived from 
them should have amounted to no more than these 
small proportions. Independent of the action of natural 
causes, the plough alone, in a few years, must have 
pulverized at least as much of the shells. 

8. In other cases where the operations of nature 
have been applying calcareous earth, for ages, none 
now remains in the soil ; and the proof thence derived 
is more striking, than any obtained from artificial ap- 
plications, of a few years standing. Valleys subject to 
be frequently overflowed and saturated by the water 
of limestone streams, must necessarily retain a new 
supply of calcareous earth from every such soaking 
and drying. 

Limestone water contains the super-carhonaie of 
lime, which is soluble : but this loses its excess of car- 
bonic acid when left dry by evaporation, and becomes 
the carbonate of lime, which not being soluble, is in 
no danger of being removed by subsequent floods. 
Thus accessions are slowly but continually made, 
through many centuries. Yet such soils are found 
containing no calcareous earth — of which a remarkable 
example is presented in the soil of the cultivated part 
of the Sweet Spring Valley, (No. 8, page 61.)* 

* The excess of carbonic acid which unites with lime and renders 
the compound soluble in water, is lost by exposure of the calca- 
reous water to the air, as well as by evaporation to dryness. [Ac- 
cum's Chemistry — Lime.] The masses of soft calcareous rock 
which are deposited in the rapids of limestone streams, are exam- 
ples of the loss of carbonic acid from exposure to the air ; and the 
stalactites in caves, the deposit of the slow-dropping- calcareous 



S2 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 



9. All loood ashes contain salts of lime, (and most 
kinds in large proportions,) which could have been 
derived from no other source than the soil on which 
the trees grew. The lime thus obtained is principally 
combined with carbonic acid, and partly with the 
phosphoric, forming phosphate of lime. The table of 
Saussure's analyses of the ashes of numerous plants,* 
is sufficient to show that these products are general, 
if not universal. The following examples of some of 
my own examinations, prove that ashes yield calca- 
reous earth in proportions suitable to their kind, al- 
though the wood grew on soils destitute of that ingre- 
dient — as was ascertained with regard to each of these 
soils. 



100 grains of ashes from 



Whortleberry bushes," 
the entire plants, ex- ' 
cept the leaves, 

Equal parts of the bark, " 
heart, and sapwood, ' 
of an old locust, 

Youn^ locust bushes 
entire, 

Young pine buslies, 

Body of a young pine 
tree. 



What soil taken from 



Acid siliclous loam, 



The same, 

Rich neutral clay 7 
loam, 5 

Acid silicious loam, 

Acid clay soil. 



Carbonate 

of 

Lime. 



4 grains, 

51 

40 

9 

14 



Phosphate 

of 

Lime. 



4 grains. 

18 

30 

6 

18 



The potash was first carefully taken out of all these 
samples. The remaining solid matter w^as silicious 

water, are examples of the same effect produced by evaporation. 
A similar deposit of insoluble carbonate of lime, from both these 
causes, is necessarily made on all land subject to be overflowed by 
limestone waters. 

* Quoted in Agr. Chem. Lecture 3. 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 83 

sand, and charcoal ; the proportion of the latter vary- 
ing according to the degree of heat used in burning 
the wood, which was not permitted to be very strong, 
for fear of converting the calcareous earth into quick- 
lime. 

All the carbonate of lime yielded by ashes, was 
necessarily furnished in some form by the soil on 
which the plants grew — and when the soil itself con- 
tained no carbonate, some other compound of lime 
must have been present, to enable us to account for 
the certain and invariable results. The presence of a 
combination of lime with some vegetable acid, and 
none other, would serve to produce such effects. Ac- 
cording to established chemical laws, if any such com- 
bination had been taken up into the sap-vessels of the 
tree, it would be decomposed by the heat necessary to 
convert the wood to ashes j the acid would be reduced 
to its elementary principles, and the lime would imme- 
diately unite with the carbonic acid, (which is produced 
abundantly by the process of combustion,) and thus 
present a product of carbonate of lime newly formed 
from the materials of the other substances decomposed."* 

On the foregoing facts and deductions, I am content 
to rest the truth of the existence of acid and neutral 
soils. Supposing the doctrine to be sufficiently proved, 
it may be useful to trace the formation of acidity in 
different soils, according to the views which have been 

* The reasoning on the presence of the carbonate of lime found 
in ashes from acid soils, does not apply to the phosphate of lime 
which is also always present. The latter salt is not decomposed by 
any known degree of heat, [Art. Chemistry^ in Edin. Ency.'\ and 
therefore might have remained unchanged, in passing from the soil 
to the tree, and thence to the ashes. 



64 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

presented, and to display the promise which that qua- 
lity holds out for improving those soils, which it has 
hitherto rendered barren and worthless. 

Every neutral soil at some former time contained 
calcareous earth in sufficient quantity to produce the 
uniform effect of that ingredient, of storing up and fix- 
ing fertility. The decomposition of the successive 
growths of plants left to rot on the rich soil, continu- 
ally formed vegetable acid, which slowly and gradually 
united with the lime in the soil. At last these two 
principles balanced each other, and the soil was no 
longer calcareous, but became neutral. Instead of its 
former ingredient carbonate of lime, it was now sup- 
plied with a vegetable salt of lime. This change of 
soil does not affect the natural growth, which remains 
the same, and thrives as well as when the soil was cal- 
careous — and when brought into cultivation, the soil 
is equally productive under all crops suited to calca- 
reous soils. If the supplies of vegetable matter con- 
tinue, the soil may even become acid in some measure, 
as may be evidenced by the growth of sorrel — but 
without losing any of its fertility before acquired. The 
quantity of acidity in any soil frequently varies : it is 
increased by the growth of such plants as delight to 
feed on it, and by the decomposition of all vegetable 
matters. Hence the longer a poor field remains at 
rest, and not grazed, the more acid it becomes — and 
this evil keeping pace with the benefits derived, is the 
cause why so little improvement, or increased product, 
is obtained from putting acid soils under that mild 
treatment. Cultivation not only prevents new sup- 
plies, but also diminishes the acidity already present 
in excess, by exposing it to the atmosphere — and the 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 85 

more a soil is exhausted, the more will its acidity be 
lessened. 

We have seen that even acid soils contain a little 
salt of lime, and therefore must have once been slight- 
ly calcareous. Indeed it may be well doubted whether 
any soil destitute of lime in any form, would not soon 
become a perfect barren, incapable of producing a spire 
of grass. But such small proportions of calcareous 
earth were soon equalled, and then exceeded, by the 
formation of vegetable acid, before much productive- 
ness was caused. The soil being thus changed, the 
plants suitable to calcareous soils died off, and gave 
place to others which produce, as well as feed and 
thrive on acidity. Still, however, even these plants 
furnish abundant supplies of vegetable matter, sufficient 
to enrich the land in the highest degree : but the an- 
tiseptic power of the acid prevents the leaves from 
rotting for years, and even then the soil has no power 
to profit by them. Though continually wasted, the 
vegetable matter is always present in abundance ; but 
must remain almost useless to the soil, until the ac- 
companying acidity shall be destroyed. 

Nearly all the woodland now remaining in Lower 
Virginia, and much of what has long been arable, is 
rendered unproductive by acidity, and successive ge- 
nerations have toiled on them without remuneration, 
and without suspecting that their worst virgin land 
was then richer than their manured lots appeared to 
be. The cultivator of such soil, who knows not its 
peculiar disease, has no other prospect than a gradual 
decrease of his always scanty crops. But if the evil is 
once understood, and the means of its removal withi^i 
his reach, he has reason to rejoice that his soil was so 
H 



86 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES, 

constituted as to be preserved from the effects of the 
improvidence of his forefathers, who would have worn 
out any land not almost indestructible. The presence 
of acid, by restraining the productive powers of the 
soil, has in a great measure saved it from exhaustion ; 
and after a course of cropping which would have ut- 
terly ruined soils much better constituted, the powers 
of our acid land remain not greatly impaired, though 
dormant, and ready to be called into action by merely 
being relieved of its acid quality. A few crops will 
reduce a new acid field to such a low product that it 
scarcely will pay for its cultivation — but no great 
change is afterwards caused, by continuing scourging 
tillage and grazing, for fifty years longer. Thus our 
acid soils have two remarkable and opposite qualities, 
both proceeding from the same cause: they cannot 
be enriched by manure, nor impoverished by cultiva- 
tion, to any great extent. Qualities so remarkable 
deserve all our powers of investigation : yet their very 
frequency seems to have caused them to be overlooked 
- — and our writers on agriculture have contrived to urge 
those who seek improvement to apply precepts drawn 
from English authors, to soils which are totally dif- 
ferent from all those for which their instructions were 
intended. 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 87 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE MODE OF OPERATION OF CALCAREOUS EARTH IN 

SOILS. 

Proposition 3. The fertilizing effects of calca- 
reous earth are chiefly produced by its power ofneU' 
tralizing acids, and of combinijig putrescent ma- 
nures loith soils, between which there would other- 
wise be but little if any chemical attraction. 

Proposition 4. Poor and acid soils cannot be 
improved durably, or prof t ably, by putrescent ma- 
nures, without previously making them calcareous, 
and thereby correcting the defect in their constitu- 
tion. 

It has already been made evident that the presence 
of calcareous earth in a natural soil causes great and 
durable fertility : but it still remains to be determined, 
to what properties of this earth its peculiar fertilizing 
efifects are to be attributed. 

Chemistry has taught that silicious earth, in any 
state of division, attracts but slightly, if at all, any of 
the parts of putrescent animal and vegetable matters. * 
But even if any slight attraction really exists when 
the earth is minutely divided, for experiments in the 
laboratory of the chemist, it cannot be exerted by sili- 
cious sand in the usual form in which nature gives it 

• Agr. Chem. page 129. 



88 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

to soils — that is, in particles comparatively coarse, 
loose, and open, and yet each particle impenetrable to 
any liquid, or gaseous fluid that might be passing 
through the vacancies. Hence, silicious earth can have 
no power, chemical or mechanical, either to attract 
enriching manures, or to preserve them when actually 
placed in contact : and soils in which the qualities of 
this earth greatly predominate, must give out freely 
all they have received, not only to a growing crop, 
but to the sun, air, and water, so as soon to lose the 
whole. No portion of putrescent matter can remain 
longer than the completion of its decomposition — and 
if not arrested during this process, by the roots of living 
plants, all will escape in the form oi gas, into the air, 
without leaving a trace of lasting improvement. With 
a knowledge of these properties, we need not resort 
to the common opinion that manure sinks through 
sandy soils, to account for its rapid disappearance. * 

* Except the very small proportions of earthy, saline and metal- 
lic matters that may be in animal and vegetable manures, the whole 
balance of their bulk (and the whole of whatever can feed plants,) 
is composed of different elements, which are known only in the 
forms of gasses — into which they must be finally resolved, after 
going through all the various stages of fermentation and decompo- 
sition. So far from sinking in the earth, these final results could 
not be possibly confined there, but must escape into the atmosphere 
as soon as they take a gaseous form, unless immediately taken up 
by the organs of growing plants. It is probable that but a small 
portion of any dressing of manure remains long enough in the soil 
to make this final change — and that nearly all is used by growing 
plants, during previous changes, or carried off by air and water. 
During the progress of the many changes caused by fermentation 
and decomposition, every soluble product may certainly sink as low 
as the rains penetrate : but it cannot descend lower than the water, 
and that, together with the soluble manure, will be again drawn up 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 89 

Aluminous earth, by its closeness, mechanically ex- 
cludes those agents of decomposition, heat, air, and 
moisture, which sand so freely admits ; and therefore 
soils in which this earth predominates give out manure 
much more slowly than sand, whether for waste or 
for use. The practical effect of this is universally un- 
derstood — that clay soils retain manure much longer 
than sand, but require much heavier applications to 
show as much effect at once. But as this means of re- 
taining manure is altogether mechanical, it serves only 
to delay both its use and its waste. Aluminous earth 
also exerts some chemical power in attracting and com- 
bining with manures, but too weakly to enable a clay 
soil to become rich by natural means. 

Davy states that both aluminous and calcareous earth 
will combine with any vegetable extract, so as to ren- 
der it less soluble, and consequently not subject to the 
waste that would otherwise take place, and hence that 
<^ the soils which contain most alumina and carbonate 
^^ of lime, are those which act with the greatest chemi- 
<*cal energy in preserving manures." Here is high 

by the roots of plants. Should the soil need draining", to take off 
water passing* beneath the surface, the soluble manure might per- 
haps be carried off by those springs. We as yet are but little in- 
formed as to the particular changes made, and the various new sub- 
stances successively formed and then decomposed, during the 
whole duration of putrescent manures in the soil — and no field for 
discovery would better reward the investigations of the agricultural 
chemist. For want of this knowledge we proceed at random in 
using manures, instead of being enabled to conform to any rule 
founded on scientific principles : nor can we hope so to manage 
manures with regard to their fermentation, the time and manner of 
application, mixing with other substances, &c., as to enable the crops 
to seize every enriching result as it is produced, and to postpone 
as long as possible the final results of decomposition. 

h2 



90 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

authority for calcareous earth possessing the power 
which my subject requires, but not in so great a de- 
gree as I think it deserves. Davy apparently places 
both earths in this respect on the same footing, and 
allows to aluminous soils retentive powers equal to the 
calcareous. But though he gives evidence (from che- 
mical experiments) of this power in both earths, he 
does not seem to have investigated the difference of 
their forces. Nor could he deem it very important, 
holding the opinion which he elsewhere expresses, that 
calcareous earth acts '^ merely by forming a useful 
earthy ingredient in the soil," and consequently attri- 
buting to it no remarkable chemical effects as a ma- 
nure. I shall oflfer some reasons for believing that the 
powers of attracting and retaining manure, possessed 
by these two earths, differ greatly in force. 

Our aluminous and calcareous soils, through the 
whole of their virgin state, have had equal means of 
receiving vegetable matter ; and if their powers for re- 
taining it were nearly equal, so would be their acquired 
fertility. Instead of this, while the calcareous soils 
have been raised to the highest condition, many of the 
tracts of clay soil remain the poorest and most worth- 
less. It is true that the one laboured under acidity, 
from which the other was free. But if we suppose 
nine-tenths of the vegetable matter to have been render- 
ed useless by that poisonous quality, the remaining 
tenth, applied for so long a time, would have made any 
soil fertile, that had the power to retain the enriching 
matter. 

Calcareous earth has power to preserve those animal 
matters which are most liable to waste, and which give 
to the sense of smell full evidence when they are es~ 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 91 

caping. Of this, a striking example is furnished by an 
experiment which was made with care and attention. 
The carcass of a cow that was killed by accident in 
May, was laid on the surface of the earth, and covered 
with about seventy bushels of finely divided fossil 
shells and earth, (mostly silicious,) their proportions 
being as thirty-six to sixty-four. After the rains had 
settled the heap, it was only six inches thick over the 
highest point of the carcass. The process of putrefac- 
tion was so slow, that several weeks passed before it 
was over ; nor was it ever so violent as to throw off 
any effluvia that the calcareous earth did not intercept 
in its escape, so that no offensive smell was ever per- 
ceived. In October, the whole heap was carried out 
and applied to one-sixth of an acre of wheat — and the 
effect produced far exceeded that of the calcareous ma- 
nure alone, which was applied at the same rate on the 
surrounding land. No such power as this experiment 
indicated, will be expected from clay. 

Quicklime is used to prevent the escape of offensive 
effluvia from animal matter ; but its operation is en- 
tirely different from that of calcareous earth. The 
former effects its object by ^^ eating" or decomposing 
the animal substance, (and nearly destroying it as ma- 
nure,) before putrefaction begins. The operation of 
calcareous earth is to moderate and retard, but not to 
prevent putrefaction — not to destroy the animal mat- 
ter, but to preserve it effectually by forming new com- 
binations with the products of putrefaction. This mode 
of using calcareous earth might be practiced to great 
advantage near towns, where carcasses and other animal 
matters are so abundant as to be a public nuisance. 
[Appendix. E.] 



92 ON CALCAREOITS MANURES. 

The power of calcareous earth to combine with and 
retain putrescent manures, implies the power of fixing 
them in any soil to which both are applied. The same 
power will be equally exerted if the putrescent ma- 
nure is applied to a soil which had previously been 
made calcareous, whether by nature, or by art. When 
a chemical combination is formed between the two 
kinds of manure, the one is necessarily as much fixed 
in the soil as the other. Neither air, sun, or rain, can 
then waste the putrescent manure, because neither can 
take it from the calcareous earth, with which it is 
chemically combined. Nothing can efiect the separa- 
tion of the parts of this compound manure, except the 
attractive power of growing plants — which as all ex- 
perience shows, will draw their food from this combi- 
nation as fast as they require it, and as easily as from 
sand. The means then by which calcareous earth acts 
as an improving manure, are, completely preserving 
putrescent manures from waste, and yielding them 
freely for use. These particular benefits, however 
great they may be, cannot be seen very quickly after 
a soil is made calcareous, but will increase with time, 
and the means for obtaining vegetable matters, until 
their accumulation is equal to the soil's power of re- 
tention. The kind, or the source of enriching manure, 
does not alter the process described. The natural 
growth of the soil, left to die and rot, or other putres- 
cent manures collected and applied, would alike be 
seized by the calcareous earth, and fixed in the soil. 

This, the most important and valuable operation of 
calcareous earth, gives nothing to the soil — but only 
secures the other manures, and gives them wholly to 
the soil. In this respect, the action of calcareous earth 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 93 

on soils, is precisely like that oi mordants in ^^ setting" 
or fixing colours. When alum, for example, is used 
by the dyer for this purpose, it adds not the slightest 
tinge of itself — but it holds to the cloth, and also to 
the otherwise fleeting dye, and thus fixes them perma- 
nently together. Without the mordant, the colour 
might have been equally vivid, but would be lost by 
the first wetting of the cloth. [Appendix. F.] 

The next most valuable property of calcareous ma- 
nures for the improvement of soil, is their j^oiver of 
neutralizing acids, which has already been incident- 
ally brought forward in the preceding chapter. Accord- 
ing to the views already presented, our poorest cultivat- 
ed soils contain more vegetable matter than they can 
beneficially use — and when first cleared, have it in great 
excess. So antiseptic is the acid quality of poor wood- 
land, that before the crop of leaves of one year can 
entirely rot, two or three others will have fallen — and 
there are always enough, at any one time, to greatly 
enrich the soil, if the leaves could be rotted and fixed 
in it, at once. * The presence of acid, by preventing 
or retarding putrefaction, keeps the vegetable matter 

* The antiseptic effect of vegetable acid In our soils receives 
some support from the facts established with regard to peat soik, 
in which vegetable acids have been discovered by chemical analysis : 
and though the peat or moss soils of Britain differ entirely from any 
soils in this country, still some facts relating to tlie former class, 
may throw light on the properties of our own soils, different as 
they may be. Not only does vegetable matter remain without pu- 
trefaction in peat soils and bogs, and serve to increase their depth 
by regular accessions from the annual growths, but even the bodies 
of beasts and men have been found unchanged under peat, many 
years after they had been covered. [Aiton's Essay on Moss Earth.] 
It is well known that the leaves of trees rot very quickly on the 
rich limestone soils of the western states, while the successive crops 



94 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

inert, and feven hurtful on cultivated land ; and the 
crops are still further injured, by taking up the poison- 
ous acid, with their nutriment. A sufficient quantity 
of calcareous earth mixed with such a soil, will imme- 
diately neutralize the acid, and destroy its powers : the 
soil, released from its baneful influence, will be ren- 
dered capable, for the first time, of exerting the fer- 
tility which it really j^ossessed. The benefit thus pro- 
duced is almost immediate : but though the soil will 
show a new vigour in its earliest vegetation, and may 
even double its first crop, yet no part of that increased 
product is due to the direct operation of the calcareous 
manure, but merely to the removal of acidity. The 
calcareous earth, in such a case, has not made the soil 
in the least richer, but has merely permitted it to bring 
into use the fertility that it had before, and which was 
concealed by the acid character of the soil. It will be 
a dangerous error for the farmer to suppose that cal- 
careous earth can enrich soil by direct means. It de- 
stroys the worst foe of productiveness, and uses to the 
greatest advantage the fertilizing powers of other ma- 
nures — but of itself it gives no fertility to soils, nor 
furnishes the least food to growing plants. These two 
kinds of action are by far the most powerful of the 
means possessed by calcareous earth, for fertilizing 
soils. It has another however of great importance — 
or rather two others, which may be best described to- 
gether as the power of altering the texture and ab- 
sorbency of soils. 

At first it may seem impossible that the same ma- 

of several years growth may be always found on our acid wood- 
land, in the different stages of their slow decomposition. 



ON CALCAREOITS MANURES. 95 

nure could produce such opposite eflfects on soils, as to 
lessen the faults of being either too sandy, or too 
clayey — and the evils occasioned by both the want, 
and the excess of moisture. Contradictory as this may 
appear, it is strictly true as to calcareous earth. In 
common with clay, calcareous earth possesses the 
power of making sandy soils more close and firm — 
and in common with sand, the power of making clay 
soils lighter. When sand and clay thus alter the tex- 
tures of soils, their operation is altogether mechanical; 
but calcareous earth must have some chemical action 
also, in producing such effects, as its power is far 
greater than either sand or clay. A very great quan- 
tity of clay would be required to stiffen a sandy soil 
perceptibly, and still more sand would be necessary 
to make a clay soil much lighter — so that the cost of 
such improvement would generally exceed the benefit 
obtained. Greater effects on the texture of soils are 
derived from less quantities of calcareous earth, in 
addition to the more valuable operation of its other 
powers. 

Every substance that is open enough for air to enter, 
and the particles of which are not absolutely impene- 
trable, must absorb moisture from the atmosphere. 
Aluminous earth reduced to an impalpable powder, 
has strong absorbing powers. But this is not the form 
in which soils can act — and a close and solid clay will 
scarcely admit the passage of air or water, and there- 
fore cannot absorb much moisture except by its surface. 
Through sandy soils, the air passes freely, but most 
of its particles are impenetrable by moisture, and 
therefore these soils are also extremely deficient in 
absorbent power. Calcareous earth, by rendering clay 



96 ON CALCAREOtJS MANURES. 

more open to the entrance of air, and closing partially 
the too open pores of sandy soils, increases the ab- 
sorbent powers of both. To increase that power in 
any soil, is to enable it to draw supplies of moisture 
from the air, in the driest weather, and to resist more 
strongly the waste by evaporation, of light rains. A 
calcareous soil will so quickly absorb a hasty shower 
of rain, as to appear to have received less than adjoin- 
ing land of dififerent character : and yet if observed in 
summer when under tillage, some days after a rain, 
and when other adjacent land looks dry on the surface, 
the part made calcareous will still show the moisture 
remaining, by its darker colour. All the effects from 
this power of calcareous manures may be observed 
within a few years after their application — though 
none of them strongly marked, as they are on lands 
made calcareous by nature, and in which, time has 
aided and perfected the operation. These soils present 
great variety in their proportions of sand and clay — 
yet the most clayey is friable enough, and the most 
sandy, firm enough, to be considered soils of good 
texture : and they resist the extremes of both wet and 
dry seasons, better than any other soils whatever. 
Time, and the increase of vegetable matter, will bring 
those qualities to the same perfection, in soils made 
calcareous by artificial means. 

The subsequent gradual accumulation of vegetable 
matter in soils to which calcareous manures have been 
applied, must also aid the improvement of their tex- 
ture and absorbing power. The vegetable matter also 
darkens the colour of the soil, which makes it warmer 
by more freely absorbing the rays of the sun. 

Additional and practical proofs of all tjie powers of 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 97 

calcareous earth will be furnished, when its use and 
effects as manure will be stated. I flatter myself how- 
ever, that enough has already been said both to estab- 
lish and account for the different capacities of soils for 
improvement by putrescent manures. If the power 
of fixing manures in soil, has been correctly ascribed 
to calcareous earth, that alone is enough to show that 
soils containing that ingredient in sufficient quantity, 
must become rich — that aluminous and silicious earths 
in any proportions, can never form other than a steril 
soil. 



98 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

CHAPTER IX. 

THE PRACTICAL EFFECTS OF CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

Proposition 5. Calcareous manures will give to 
our worst soils a power of retaining putrescent ma- 
nures, equal to that of the best — and will cause 
Tnore productiveness, and yield m.ore profit, than 
any other improvement practicable in Lower Vir- 
ginia. 

The theory of the constitution of fertile and barren 
soils, has been regularly discussed : it now remains to 
show its practical application in the use of calcareous 
earth as a manure. If the opinions which have been 
maintained are unsound, the attempt to reduce them to 
practice will surely expose their futility : and if they 
pass through that trial, agreeing with, and confirmed 
by facts, their truth and value must stand unquestioned. 
The belief in the most important of these opinions, 
(the incapacity of poor soils for improvement, and its 
cause,) directed the commencement of my use of cal- 
careous manures ; and the manner of my practice has 
also been directed entirely by the views which have 
been exhibited. Yet in every respect the results of 
practice have sustained the theory of the action of cal- 
careous manures — unless there be found an exception 
in the damage which has been caused by applying too 
heavy dressings to weak lands. 

My use of calcareous earth as manure, has been al- 
most entirely confined to that form of it which is so 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 99 

abundant in the neighbourhood of our tide-waters — 
the beds oi fossil shells, together with the earth with 
which they are found mixed. The shells are in va- 
rious states — in some beds generally whole, and in 
others, reduced nearly to a coarse powder. The earth 
which fills their vacancies, and serves to make the 
whole a compact mass, in most cases is principally 
silicious sand, and contains no putrescent or valuable 
matter, other than the calcareous. The same effects 
might be expected from calcareous earth in any other 
form, whether chalk, limestone gravel, wood ashes, 
or lime — though the two last have other qualities be- 
sides the calcareous. During the short time that lime 
can remain quick or caustic, after being applied as 
manure, it exerts a solvent and decomposing power, 
sometimes beneficial and at others hurtful, which has 
no connexion with its subsequent and permanent action 
as calcareous earth. 

These natural deposits of fossil shells are commonly, 
but very improperly, called 'marl. This misapplied 
term is particularly objectionable, because it induces 
erroneous views of this manure. Other earthy manures 
have long been used in England under the name of 
marl, and numerous publications have described their 
general effects, and recommended their use. When 
the same name is given here to a difierent manure, 
many persons will consider both operations as similar, 
and perhaps may refer to English authorities for the 
purpose of testing the truth of my opinions, and the 
results of my practice. But no two operations called 
by the same name, can well difier more. The process 
which it is my object to recommend, is simply the ap- 
plication of calcareous earth in any form whatever, 



100 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

to soils wanting that ingredient, and generally quite 
destitute of it — and the propriety of the application 
depends entirely on our knowing that the manure con- 
tains calcareous earth, and what proportion, and that 
the soil contains none. In England, the most scientific 
agriculturists apply the term marl correctly to a cal- 
careous clay, of peculiar texture : but most authors, as 
well as mere cultivators, use it for any smooth soapy 
clay, which may, or may not, so far as they know, 
have any proportion of calcareous matter. Indeed, in 
most cases, they seem unconscious of the presence, as 
w^ell as of the importance of that ingredient, by not al- 
luding to it when attempting most carefully to point 
out the characters by which marl may be known. 
Still less do they inquire into deficiency of calcareous 
earth in soils proposed to be marled — but apply any 
earths which either science or ignorance may have 
called marl, to any soils within a convenient distance 
— and rely upon the subsequent efiects to direct whe- 
ther the operation shall be continued or abandoned. 
Authors of the highest character, (as Sinclair and Young, 
for example,) when telling of the practical use, and 
valuable efiects of marl, omit giving the strength of the 
manure, and generally even its nature — and in no in- 
stance have I found the ingredients of the soil stated, 
so that the reader might learn what operation really 
was described, or be enabled to form a judgment of its 
propriety. From all this, it follows that though what 
is called m^arling in England may sometimes (though 
very rarely as I infer) be the same chemical operation 
on the soil that I am recommending, yet it may also 
be, either applying clay to sand, or clay to chalk, or 
true marl to either of those soils — and the reader will 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 101 

generally be left to guess in every separate case, which 
of all these operations is meant by the term marling. 
For these reasons, the practical knowledge to be gather- 
ed from all this mass of written instruction on marling, 
will be far less abundant, than the inevitable errors 
and mistakes. The recommendations of marl by Eng- 
lish authors, induced me very early to look to what 
was here called by the same name, as a means for im- 
provement : but their descriptions of the manure con- 
vinced me that our marl was nothing like theirs, and 
thus actually deterred me from using it, until other 
views instructed me that its value did not depend on 
its having "a soapy feel," or on any mixture of clay 
whatever. [Appendix. G.] 

But however incorrect and inconvenient the term 
may be, custom has too strongly fixed its application 
for any proposed change to be adopted. Therefore, I 
must submit to use the word marl to mean beds of 
fossil shells, notwithstanding my protest against the 
propriety of its being so applied. 

The following experiments are reported, either on 
account of having been accurately made, and carefully 
observed, or as presenting such results as have been 
generally obtained on similar soils, from applications 
of fossil shells to nearly six hundred acres of Coggin's 
Point Farm. It has been my habit to make written 
memoranda of such things ; and the material circum- 
stances of these experiments were put in writing at the 
time they occurred, or not long after. Some of the 
experiments were, from their commencement, design- 
ed to be permanent, and their results to be measured 
as long as circumstances might permit. These were 
made with the utmost care. But generally, when pre- 

I 2 



102 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

cise amounts are not stated, the experiments were less 
carefully made, and their results reported by guess. 
Every measurement stated, of land, or of crop, was 
made in my presence. The average strength of the ma- 
nure was ascertained by a sufficient number of analyses 
— and the quantity applied was knoivn by measuring 
some of the loads, and having them dropped at certain 
distances. At the risk of being tedious, I shall state 
every circumstance supposed to affect the results of the 
experiments — and the manner of description, and of 
reference, necessary to use, will require a degree of 
attention that few readers may be disposed to give, to 
enable them to derive the full benefit of these details. 
When these operations were commenced, I knew of 
no other experiments having been made with fossil 
shells, except two, which had been tried long before, 
and were considered as praving the manure too worth- 
less to be resorted to again.* My inexperience, and 

* The earliest of these old experiments was made at Spring Gar- 
den iu Surry, about 1775. The extent marled was eiglit or ten 
acres, on poor sandy land. Nothing is known of the effects for the 
first twenty-five or thirty years, except that they were too incon- 
siderable to induce a repetition of the experiment. The system of 
cultivation was as exhausting as was usual during that time. Since 
1812, tlie farm has been under mild and imprgvin^ management 
g^enerally. No care has been taken to observe the progress of ei- 
ther improvement or exhaustion on the marled piece : but there is 
no doubt but that the product has continued for the last fifteen years 
better than that of the adjacent land. Mr. Francis Ruffin, the pre- 
sent owner of the farm, believed that the product was not much in- 
creased in favourable seasons ; but when the other land suffered 
either from too much wet, or dry weather, the crop on the marled 
land was comparatively but slightly injured. The loose reports that 
have been obtained respecting this experiment, are at least con- 
clusive in showing the permanency of the effects produced. 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 103 

total want of any practical guide, caused my applica- 
tions, for the first few years, to be frequently injudi- 
cious, particularly as to the quantities laid on. For 
this reason, these experiments show what was actually 
done, and the effects thence derived, and not what 
better information would have directed, as the most 
profitable course. 

The measurements of corn that will be reported 
were all made at the time and place of gathering. The 
measure used for all except very small quantities, was 
a barrel holding five bushels when filled level, and 
which being filled twice with ears of corn, well shaken 
to settle them, and heaped, was estimated to make five 
bushels of grain — and the products will be reported in 
grain, according to this estimate. This mode of mea- 
surement will best serve for comparing results — but in 
most cases it is far from giving correctly the actual 
quantity of dry and sound grain, for the following 
reasons. The common large soft grained white corn 

The other old experiment referred to, was made at Aberdeen, 
Prince Georg-e county, in 1803, by Mr. Thomas Cocke. Three 
small spots (neither exceeding thirty yards square,) of poor land, 
kept before and since generally under exhausting culture, were 
covered with this manure. He found a very inconsiderable early 
improvement, which he thought entirely an inadequate reward for 
the labour of applying the marl. The experiment being deemed of 
no value, was but little noticed until the commencement of my use 
of the same manure. On examination, the improvement appeared 
to have increased greatly on two of the pieces, but the third was 
evidently the worse for the application. For a number of years 
after making this experiment, Mr. Cocke considered it as giving 
full proof of the worthlessness of the manure. But more correct 
views of its mode of operation have since induced him to recom- 
mence its use, and no one has met with more success, or produced 
more valuable improvements. 



104 ON CALCAREOtrS MANURES. 

was the kind cultivated, and which was always cut 
down for sowing wheat before the best matured was 
dry enough to grind, or to put up in cribs, and when 
the ears from the poorest land were in a state to lose 
considerably more by shrinking. Yet, for fear of some 
mistake occurring if measurements were delayed until 
the crop was gathered, these experiments were mea- 
sured when the land was ploughed for wheat in Octo- 
ber. The subsequent loss from shrinking would of 
course be greatest on the corn from the poorest and 
most backward land, as there, most defective and un- 
ripe ears would always be found. Besides, every ear, 
however imperfect or rotten, was included in the mea- 
surement. For these several reasons, the actual increase 
of product on the marled land was always greater than 
will appear from the comparison of quantities mea- 
sured : and from the statements of all such early mea- 
surements, there ought to be allowed a deduction, 
varying from ten per cent, on the best and most for- 
ward corn, to thirty per cent, on the latest and most 
defective. Having stated the grounds of this estimate, 
practical men can draw such conclusions as their ex- 
perience may direct, from the dates and amounts of the 
actual measurements that will be reported. 

No grazing has been permitted on any land from 
which experiments will be reported, unless it is spe- 
cially stated. 

Experiments on recently cleared acid sandy soils. 

As most of the experiments on new land were made 
on a single piece of twenty-six acres, a general de- 
scription or plan of the whole will enable me to be bet- 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 



105 



ter understood, by references to the annexed figure. 
It forms part of the ridge lying between James River 
and the nearest stream running into Powell's Creek. 
The surface is nearly level. The soil in its natural 



A 



m 



13 



P 



'I 



IV 



13 



1. 

2 
3 

4 



f 



-nv 



C 



state very similar throughout, but the part next to the 
line B C somewhat more sandy, and more productive 
in corn, than the part next to A D — and in like manner, 
it is lighter along A e, than nearer to Dy. The whole 
soil, a grey silicious acid loam, not more than two 
inches deep at first, resting on a yellowish sandy sub- 
soil from one to two feet deep, when it changes to clay. 
Natural growth mostly pine — next in quantity, oaks 
of diflferent kinds — a little of dogwood and chinquapin 
— whortleberry bushes throughout in plenty. The 
quality of the soil is better than the average of ridge 
lands in general. 

EXPERIMENT 1. 

The part B C ^ A, about eleven acres, grubbed and 
cut down in the winter of 1814-15 — suffered to lie three 
years with most of the wood and brush on it. Feb- 
ruary 1818, my earliest application of marl was made 



106 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

on B C /??- /, about 2§ acres. Marl, ^^\ of calcareous 
earth, and the balance silicious sand, except a very 
small proportion of clay : the shelly matter finely di- 
vided. Quantity of marl to the acre, one hundred and 
twenty-five to two hundred heaped bushels. The 
whole B C ^ A coultered, and planted in its first crop 
of corn. 

Results. 1818. The corn on the marled land, evi- 
dently much better — supposed difierence, forty per 
cent. 

1819. In wheat. The difference as great, perhaps 
more so — particularly to be remarked from the com- 
mencement to the end of winter, by the marled part 
preserving a green colour, while the remainder w^as 
seldom visible from a short distance, and by the 
spring, stood much thinner, from the greater number 
of plants having been killed. The line of separation 
very perceptible through both crops. 

1820. At rest. During the summer marled all B C 
g h, at the rate of five hundred bushels, without ex- 
cepting the space before covered, and a small part of 
that made as heavy as one thousand bushels, counting 
both dressings. The shells now generally coarse — 
average strength of the marl, -^-^^ of calcareous earth. 
In the winter after, ploughed three inches deep as 
nearly as could be, which made the whole new surface 
yellow, by bringing barren subsoil to the top. 

Results continued. 1821. In corn. The whole a 
remarkable growth for such a soil. The oldest (and 
heaviest) marled piece better than the other, but not 
enough so to show the dividing line. The average 
product of the whole supposed to have been fully 
twenty-five bushels to the acre. 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 107 

1822. In wheat — and red clover sowed on all the 
old marling and one or two acres adjoining. A severe 
drought in June killed the greater part of the clover, 
but left it much the thickest on the oldest marled piece, 
so as again to show the dividing line, and to yield in 
1823, two middling crops to the scythe — the first that 
I had known obtained from any acid soil, without high 
improvement from putrescent manures. 

1823. At rest— nothing taken off, except the clover 
on B C m /. 

1824. In corn — product seemed as before, and its 
rate may be inferred from the actual measurements on 
other parts, which will be stated in the next experiment, 
the whole being now cleared, and brought under like 
cultivation. 

EXPERIMENT 2. 

The part efn o, cleared and cultivated in corn at the 
same times as the preceding— but treated differently 
in some other respects. This had been deprived of 
nearly all its wood, and the brush burnt, at the time 
of cutting down — and its first crop of corn (1818) being 
very inferior, was not followed by wheat in 1819. This 
gave two years of rest before the crop of 1821 — and 
five years rest out of six, since the piece had been cut 
down. As before stated, the soil rather lighter on the 
side next to o e, than nf. 

March 1821. A measured acre near the middle, 
covered with six hundred bushels of calcareous sand 
(w?) the upper layer of another body of fossil shells. 

Results. 1821. In corn. October — the four adjoin- 
ing quarter acres, marked 1, 2, 3, 4, extending nearly 



108 ON CALCAREOUS MANtJRES. 

across the piece, two of them within, and two without 
the marled part, measured as follows : 

No. 1. not marled 63 > average to the acre 22i 

No. 4. - - - 513 bushels of grain. 

No. 2. marled - 8^ ^ average 33^ 

No. 3. - . . 8^5 bushels. 

The remainder of this piece was marled before sow- 
ing wheat in 1821. 

1823. At rest. 

1824. In corn — distance 5i x 3;? feet, making 2436 
stalks to the acre. October 11th measured two quarter 
acres very nearly coinciding with Nos. 2 and 3 in the 
last measurement. They now made 

No. 2. 7 bushels 3i pecks — or ^ 

per acre - 31.1 V average 31. 2i 

No. 3. 8 bushels, - - - 32 ) 

Average in 1821, - - - 33.1 



EXPERIMENT 3. 

The part efg h was cut down in January 1821, and 
the land planted in corn the same year. The coulter- 
ing and after-tillage very badly executed, on account 
of the number of whortleberry and other roots. As 
much as was convenient was marled at six hundred 
bushels (j-Jq) and the dressing limited by a straight 
line. Distance of corn 5i x Si feet — 2262 stalks to 
the acre. 

Results. 1821. October — On each side of the di- 
viding line, a piece of twenty-eight by twenty-one 
corn hills measured as follows : 

No. 1. 588 stalks, not marled, 2 bushels, 
equal to * 71 the acre, 

No. 2. 588 marled, H 161 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 109 

1822. In wheat, the remainder having been pre- 
viously marled. 

1823. At rest. During the following winter it was 
covered with a second dressing of marl at 250 bushels 
(to-) leaking 850 bushels to the acre, altogether. 

1824. In corn. Two quarter acres, chosen as nearly 
as possible on the same spaces that were measured in 
1821, produced as follows : 

No. 1. 8 bushels, 2 pecks, or to the acre, 34 
The same in 1821, before marling, 7.3? 



No. 2. 7 bushels, 2^ pecks, or to the acre, 30.2 
The same in 1821, after marling, 16. li 



1825. The whole twenty-six acres, including the 
subjects of all these experiments and observations, were 
in wheat. The first marled piece in Exp. 1, was de- 
cidedly the best — and a gradual decline was to be seen 
to the latest. I have never measured the product of 
wheat from any experiment, on account of the great 
trouble and difficulty that would be encountered. Even 
if the wheat from small measured spaces could be reaped 
and secured separately, during the heavy labours of 
harvest, it would be scarcely possible afterwards to 
carry the different parcels through all the operations 
necessary to show exactly the clean grain derived from 
each. But without any separate measurement, all my 
observations convince me, that the increase of wheat 
from marling, is at least equal to that of corn, during 
the first few years — and is certainly greater afterwards, 
in comparison to its product before using marl. 

It was from the heaviest marled part of Exp. 1, that 
soil was analyzed to find how much calcareous earth 
K 



110 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

remained in 1826, (page 79.) Before that time the 
marl and soil had been well mixed by ploughing to 
the depth of five inches. One of the specimens of this 
soil then examined, consisted of the following parts— 
the surface and consequently the undecomposed weeds 
upon it, being excluded. 
1000 grains of soil yielded 

769 grains of silicious sand moderately fine, 
15 finer sand, 



784 




8 


calcareous earth, from the manure 




applied, 


180 


finely divided clay, vegetable mat- 




ter, &c. 


28 


loss in the process. 


1000 





This part, it has been already stated, was originally 
lighter than the general texture of the land. 

EXPERIMENT 4. 

The four acres marked AT) no were cleared in the 
winter 1823-4. The lines jt? q and rs divide the piece 
nearly into quarters. The end nearest Ap o is lighter, 
and best for corn, and was still better for the first crop, 
owing to nearly that half having been accidentally 
burnt over. After twice coultering, marl and putres- 
cent manures were applied as follows ; and the pro- 
ducts measured, October 11th, the same year. 

s q not marled nor manured — produced on a quarter 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. Ill 

acre (No. 4.) 3 bushels 

(soft and badly filled) or per acre, 12 bushels 

q r and r jt?/marled at 800 bushels {y^q) 
gave by three measurements of different 
pieces — 

Quarter acre (No. 1.) 5 bushels, very 
nearly, or 19.3^ 

Eighth (No. 2. ) 2.HX average C 22,2 

Eighth (No. 3.) 3.U5 24.U ^27. 

s t manured at 900 to 1100 bushels to 
the acre, of which, 

Quarter acre (No. 5.) with rotted corn- 
stalks, from a winter cow-pen, gave 

6.2h 22.2 

Eighth acre (No. 6.) with stable ma- 
nure, 35.2 

Eighth (No. 7. ) covered with the 

same heavy dressings of stable manure, 
and of marl also, gave 4.2 36. 

p w marled at 450 bushels, was not so 
good as the adjoining rp at 800. 

The distance was 5^ X 3:1 feet. Two of the quarter 
acres were measured by the surveyor's chain (as were 
four other of the experiments of 1824,) and found to 
vary so little from the distance counted by corn rows, 
that the difference was not worth notice. 

1825. In wheat : the different marked pieces seemed 
to yield in comparison to each other, proportions not 
perceptibly different from those of the preceding crop 
— but the best not equal to any of the land marled be- 
fore 1822, as stated in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd experi- 
ments. 

1827. Wheat, on a very rough and imperfect sum- 



112 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 



mer fallow. This was too exhausting a course (being 
a grain crop added to the four shift rotation,) — but was 
considered necessary to check the growth of bushes 
that had sprung from the roots still living. The crop 
was small, as might have been expected from its pre- 
paration. 

1828. Corn — in rows five feet apart, and about three 
feet of distance along the rows, the seed being drop- 
ped by the step. Owing to unfavourable weather, and 
to insects and other vermin, not more than half of the 
first planting of this field lived — and so much replanting 
of course caused its product to be much less matured 
than usual, on the weaker land. All the part not mark- 
ed, (and more particularly that manured,) was so 
covered by sorrel, as to require ten times as much la- 
bour in weeding as the marled parts, which, as in 
every other case, bore no sorrel. October 15th, gather- 
ed and measured the corn from the following spaces, 
which were laid ofi* (by the chain) as nearly as could 
be, on the same land as in 1824. The products of 
both years can be best compared by being presented 
in a tabular form. 



MARK. 


5 


9 


Q 


r 


r 


P 


r 


V 


s 


t 


s 


t 


w 


t 


w 


P 



DESCniPTION. 



Not marled or manured, 
(No. 1.) Marled, at 800 bush- 
els, - - - - 
(No. 2.) Marled, 800 bushels, 
(No. 3.) Marled,-800 bushels, 
(No. 5.) Cow-pen manure, 
(No. 6.) Stable manure, 
(No. 7. ) Marl and stable ma- 
nure, - - . 
Marled at 450 bushels. 



PRODUCT OF GRAIN PER ACRE. 



1824. 
October 11. 



Bush. Pecks. 
12 0, 



19 

22 
27 
22 
35 



2 ■ 

2 
2 



36 
Less than 
rp (800) 



1828. 
October 15. 



Bush. Peeks. 
21 1 



28 

31 

25 
29 



H 

2 




33 2 
As much as 
rp (800) 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 113 

Experiments on acid clay soils, recently cleared. 

The two next experiments were made on a field of 
thirty acres of very uniform quality, marled and clear- 
ed in 1826 and the succeeding years. The soil is very 
stiff, close, and intractable under cultivation — seems to 
contain scarcely any sand — but in fact, abut one-half 
of it is composed of silicious sand, which is so fine, 
when separated, as to feel like flour. Only a small 
proportion of the sand is coarser than this state of im- 
palpable powder. Aluminous earth of a dirty fawn 
colour forms nearly all of its remaining ingredients. 
Before clearing, the soil is not an inch deep, and all 
below for some feet is apparently composed of the like 
parts of clay and fine sand. This is decidedly the most 
worthless kind of soil, in its natural state, that our dis- 
trict furnishes. It is better for wheat than for corn, 
though its product is contemptible in every thing : it 
is difficult to be made wet, or dry — and therefore suf- 
fers more than other soils from both dry and wet sea- 
sons, but especially from the former. It is almost al- 
ways either too wet or too dry for ploughing — and 
sometimes it will pass through both states, in two or 
three clear and warm days. If broken up early in 
winter, the soil, instead of being pulverized by frost, 
like most clay lands, runs together again by freezing 
and thawing — and by March, will have a sleek (though 
not a very even) crust upon the surface, quite too hard 
to plant in without another ploughing. The natural 
growth is principally* white and red oaks, a smaller 
proportion of pine, and whortleberry bushes through- 
out. 

k2 



114 ON CALCAREOFS MANURES. 

EXPERIMENT 5. 

On one side of this field a marked spot of thirty-five 
yards square was left out, when the adjoining land 
was marled at the rate of five hundred to six hundred 
bushels (j-^q) to the acre. Paths for the carts were 
opened through the trees, and the marl dropped and 
spread in January 1826 — the land cleared the follow- 
ing winter. Most of the wood was carried off for fuel 
— the remaining logs and brush burnt on the ground, 
as usual, at such distances as were convenient to the 
labourers. This part was perhaps the poorer, because 
wood had previously been cut here for fuel, though 
only a few trees taken, here and there, without any 
thing like clearing the land. 

Results, 1827. Planted in corn the whole recent 
clearing of fifteen acres — all marled, except the spot 
left out for experiment. Broken up late and badly, 
and worse tilled, as the land was generally too hard, 
until the season was too far advanced to save the crop. 
The whole product so small, that it was useless to at- 
tempt to measure the experiment. The difierence 
would have been only between a few imperfect ears 
on the marled ground, and still less — indeed almost 
nothing — on that not marled. 

1828. Again in corn : as well broken and cultivated 
as usual for such land. October ISth. Cut down four 
rows of corn running through the land not marled, and 
eight others, alongside on the marled — all fifty feet 
in length. The rows had been laid off for five and a 
half feet — were found to vary a few inches — for which 
the proper allowance was made by calculation. The 
spaces taken for measurement were caused to be so 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 115 

small, by a part of the corn having been inadvertently 
cut down and shocked, just before. The ears were 
shelled when gathered ; and the products, measured in 
a vessel which held (by trial) ^\ of a bushel, were as 
follows : 

On land not marled 
4 rows, average 5 feet, and 50 in length, (500 square 

feet) - - - - - 132 measures, 

or to the acre - - - - 7^ bushels. 

On adjoining marled land 
4 rows, average 5 feet 1^ inchesxoO feet=512 square 

feet - - - - - 251 measures, 

or to the acre _ - _ _ 13i bushels. 

4 next rows, 5 feet 4i inches x 50 =537 square 

feet _ . - - - 27^ measures, 

or to the acre - - - - 14 bushels. 

1829. In wheat. 

1S30, At rest — the weeds, a scanty cover. 

1831. In corn. October 20th. Measured by the 
chain equal spaces, and gathered and measured their 
products. The unmarled corn was so imperfectly fill- 
ed, that it was necessary to shell it, for fairly mea- 
suring the quantity. The marled parcels, being of 
good ears generally, were measured as usual, by al- 
lowing two heaped measures of ears, for one of grain. 

On land not marled 
363 square yards made - - 3 gallons, 

or to the acre _ _ - 5 bushels. 

On marled land close adjoining on one side, 

363 square yards made rather more than 6 gallons 
— to the acre, ----- lo bushels 

363 square yards on another side, made not quite S 
gallouvS, or to the acre, - - 12 bushels. 



116 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 



The piece not marled coincided with that measured 
in 182S, as nearly as their difference of size and shape 
permitted — as did the last named marled piece, with 
the two of 1828. The last crop was greatly injured 
by the wettest summer that I have ever known, which 
has caused the decrease of product exhibited in this 
experiment — which will be best seen in this form : 



Not marled, 
Marled, (averaged), 



PRODUCT OF GRAIN TO THE ACRE. 



1828. 
October 18. 



Bush. Pecks. 

7 1 

13 3 



1831. 
October 20. 



Bush. Pecks. 

5 

11 



EXPERIMENT 6. 

The remainder of the thirty acres, was grubbed dur- 
ing the winter 1826-7 — marled the next summer at 
five hundred to six hundred bushels the acre : marl 
■^■^Q. A rectangle (A) 11x13 poles, was laid off by 
the chain and compass, and left without marl. All 
the surrounding land supposed to 
be equal in quality with A — and 
all level, except on the sides E and 
B, which were partly sloping, but 
not otherwise different. The soil 
suited to the general description 
given before — no natural differ- 
ence known or suspected, between the land on which 
Exp. 5 was made, and this, except that the latter had 
not been robbed of any wood for fuel, before clearing. 
The large trees (all more than ten inches through,) 
were belted, and the smaller cut down in the beginning 
of 1828, and all the land west of the line e/was plant- 





e 


D 




H 
en 


C 


A 


E 




/ 


B 





OK CAICAREOUS MANURES. 117 

ed in corn. As usual, the tillage bad, and the crop 
very small. The balance, lying east oi ef, was coulter- 
ed once, but as more labour could not be spared, no- 
thing more was done with it until the latter part of the 
winter 1829, when it was broken by two-horse ploughs, 
oats sowed and covered by trowel ploughs — then clo- 
ver sowed, and a wooden-tooth harrow passed over to 
cover the seed, and to smooth down, in some measure, 
the masses of roots and clods. 

Results. 1S29. The oats produced badly — but yield- 
ed more for the labour required, than corn would have 
done. The young clover on the marled land was re- 
markably good, and covered the surface completely. 
In the unmarled part A, only two casts through had 
been sown, for comparison, as I knew it would be a 
waste of seed. This looked as badly as had been ex- 
pected. 

1830. The crop of clover would have been consider- 
ed excellent for good land, and most extraordinary for 
so poor a soil as this. The strip sowed through A, had 
but little left alive, and that scarcely of a size to be 
observed, except one or two small tufts, where I sup- 
posed some marl had been deposited, by the cleaning 
of a plough, or that ashes had been left, from burning 
the brush. The growth of clover was left undisturbed 
until after midsummer, when it was grazed by my 
small stock of cattle, but not closely. 

1831. Corn on the whole field. October 20th, mea- 
sured carefully half an acre (10 x 8 poles) in A, the 
same in D, and half as much (10 x 4) in E. No more 
space could be taken on this side, for fear of getting 
within the injurious influence of the contiguous woods. 
No measurement was made on the side B, because a 



118 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

large oak, which belling had not killed, affected its pro- 
duct considerably. Another accidental circumstance 
prevented my being able to know the product of the 
side C — which however was evidently and greatly in- 
ferior to all the marled land on which oats and clover 
had been raised. This side had been in corn, followed 
by wheat, and then under its spontaneous growth of 
weeds. The corn on each of the measured spaces was 
cut down, and put in separate shocks — and on Nov. 
25th, when well dried, the parcels were shucked and 
measured, without being moved. We had then been 
gathering and storing the crop, for more than fifteen 
days — and therefore these measurements may be con- 
sidered as showing the amount of dry and firm grain, 
without any deduction being required for shrinkage. 

Bushels. Pecks. 

A (Half acre) made 7i bushels of ears, or 

ofgraintotheacre 7 1 
D (Half acre) 16i ----- 16 3 

E (Quarter acre) 11 22 

The sloping surface of the side E, prevented water 
from lying on it, and therefore it suffered less, per- 
haps not at all^ from the extreme wetness of the sum- 
mer, which evidently injured the growth on A and D, 
as well as of all the other level parts of the field. 

EXPERIMENT 7. 

Another piece of land of twenty-five acres, of soil 
and qualities similar to the last described (Exp. 5 and 
6), was cleared in 1818, and about six acres marled in 
18 19^ at about three hundred and fifty bushels. The 
course of cultivation was as follows. 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 119 

1820 — Corn — benefit from marl very unequal — sup- 
posed to vary between twenty-five and eighty per cent. 
1821. Wheat — the difference greater. 
1S22. At rest. 

1823. Ploughed early for corn, but not planted. The 
whole marled at the rate of six hundred bushels (y^,) 
again ploughed in August, and sowed in wheat in Oc- 
tober. The old marled space, more lightly covered, 
so as to make the whole nearly equal. 

1824. The wheat much improved. 
1825 and 1826 — at rest. 

1827. Corn. 

1828. In wheat, and sowed in clover. 

1829 — The crop of clover was heavier than any I 
had ever seen in this part of the country, except on 
rich natural soil, where gypsum was used, and acted well. 
The growth was thick, but unequal in height, (owing 
probably to unequal spreading of the marl,) — it stood 
from fifteen to twenty-four inches high. The first 
growth was mowed for hay, and the second left to im- 
prove the land. 

1830. The clover not mowed. Fallowed in August, 
and sowed wheat in October, after a second ploughing. 

1831. The wheat was excellent — almost heavy 
enough to be in danger of lodging. I supposed the pro- 
duct to be certainly twenty bushels — perhaps twenty- 
five, to the acre. 

As it had not been designed to make any experiment 
on this land, the progress of improvement was not 
observed with much care. But whatever were the in- 
termediate steps, it is certain that the land at first, was 
as poor as that forming the subjects of the two pre- 



120 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

ceding experiments, in the unimproved state, (the mea- 
sured products of which have been given) — and that 
its last crop was three or four times as great as could 
have been obtained, if marl had not been applied. The 
peculiar fitness of this kind of soil for clover after 
marling, will require further remarks, and will be 
again referred to hereafter. 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 121 



CHAPTER X. 

THE EFFECTS OF CALCAREOUS MANURES, ON ACID SOILS 
REDUCED BY CULTIVATION. 

Proposition 5. Continued. 

My use of fossil shells has been more extensive, on 
impoverished acid soils, than on all other kinds, and 
has never failed to produce striking improvement. Yet 
it has unfortunately happened, that the two experi- 
ments made on such land with most care, and on which 
I relied for evidence of the durable and increasing 
benefit from this manure, have had their effects almost 
destroyed, by the applications having been made too 
heavy. These experiments, like the 4th, 5th and 6th 
already reported, were designed to remain without 
any subsequent alteration, so that the measurement 
of their products once in every succeeding rotation, 
might exhibit the progress of improvement under all 
the different circumstances. As no danger was then 
feared from such a cause, marl was applied heavily, 
that no future addition might be required : and for this 
reason, I have to report my greatest disappointments, 
exactly in those cases where the most evident success 
and increasing benefits had been expected. However, 
these failures will be stated as fully as the most suc- 
cessful results — and they may at least serve to warn 
from the danger, if not to show the greatest profits of 
marling. 

L 



1^2 ON CALCAREOUS MANtJRES* 



EXPERIMENT 8. 

Of a poor silicious acid loam, seven acres were 
marled at the rate of only ninety bushels (y^) to the 
acre: laid on and spread early in 1819. 

Results. 1819. In corn — the benefit too small to be 
generally perceptible, but could be plainly distinguish- 
ed along part of the outline, by comparing with the 
part not marled. 

1820. Wheat — something better — and the effect con- 
tinued to be visible on the weeds following, until the 
whole was more heavily marled in 1823. 

EXPERIMENT 9. 

In the same field, on soil as poor, and more sandy 
than the last described, four acres were marled at one 
hundred and eighty bushels (y/o-)? March 1819. A 
part of the same was also covered heavily with rotted 
barn-yard manure, which also extended through simi- 
lar land not marled. This furnished for observation, 
land marled only — manured only — marled and ma- 
nured — and some without either. The whole space, 
and more adjoining, had been manured five or six 
years before by summer cow-pens, and stable litter — 
of which no appearance remained after two years. 

Results. 1819. In corn. The improvement from 
marl very evident — but not to be distinguished on the 
part covered also by manure, the effect of the latter so 
far exceeding that of the marl. 

1820. In wheat. 1821 and 1822, at rest. 

1823. In corn — 5ix3:| feet — The following mea- 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 123 

surements were made on adjoining spaces on October 
10th. The shape of the ground did not admit of larger 
pieces, equal in all respects, being measured, as no com- 
parison of products had been contemplated at first, 
otherwise than by the eye. 

Bushels. Quarts. 

From the part not marled — 
414 corn-hills made 75 quarts — or to the acre, 13 26 

Marled only — 
414 - - 100 - - - - 18 12 

Manured only — 
490 - - 105 - - - - 15 5 
Marled and ma- 
nured — 
490 - - 130 - - - - 20 20 
The growth on the part both marled and manured 
Was evidently inferior to that of 1819 : this was to be 
expected, as this small quantity of calcareous earth 
was not enough to fix half so much putrescent manure 
— and of course, the excess was as liable to waste, as 
if no marl had been used. 

EXPERIMENT 10. 

Twenty acres of sandy loam, on a sandy subsoil, 
covered in 1819 with marl of about ^-^ average pro- 
portion of calcareous earth, and the balance silicious 
sand — at eight hundred bushels to the acre. This land 
had been long cleared, and much exhausted by cultiva- 
tion : since 1813 not grazed, and had been in corn only 
once in four years, and as it was not worth sowing in 
wheat, had three years in each rotation to rest and im- 
prove by receiving all its scanty growth of weeds. The 
same course has been continued since 1819, except that 



124 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

wheat has regularly followed the crops of corn, leaving 
two years of rest, in four. This soil was lighter than 
the subject of any preceding experiment, except the 
ninth. On a high level part, surrounded by land ap- 
parently equal, a square of about an acre was staked 
ojQT, and left without marl — which that year's work 
brought to two sides of the square. 

Results. 1820. In corn: October 13th, three half 
acres of marled land were measured, and as many on 
that not marled, and close adjoining, and produced as 
follows : 

Not marled. Marled. 

Bushels. Pecks. Bushels. Pecks. 

Half acre A, 7 1 adjoining C, 12 3 
The same A, 7 1 D, 13 3| 

Half acre B, 7 2i E, 15 0^ 

The average increase being 12f bushels of grain to 
the acre: nearly 100 per cent, as measured, and more 
than 100, if the defective filling, and less matured state 
of the corn not marled, be considered. The whole 
would have lost more by shrinkage than is usual from 
equal products. 

1821. The whole in wheat — much hurt by the wet- 
ness of the season. The marled part more than twice 
as good as that left out. 

1822 and 1823. At rest. A good cover of carrot 
weeds and other kinds had succeeded the former 
growth of poverty grass and sorrel, and every appear- 
ance promised additional increase to the next culti- 
vated crop. Nov. 1823, when the next ploughing was 
commenced, the soil was found to be evidently deeper, 
of a darker colour, and firmer, yet more friable. The 
two-horse ploughs with difficulty (increased by the 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 125 

cover of weeds,) could cut the required depth of five 
inches, and the slice crumbled as it fell from the mould- 
board. But as the furrows passed into the part not 
marled, an immediate change was seen, and even felt 
by the ploughman, as the cutting was so much more 
easy, that care was necessary to prevent the plough 
running too deep — and the slices turned over in flakes, 
smooth and sleek from the mould-board, like land too 
wet for ploughing, which however was not the case. 
The marling of the field was completed, at the same 
rate, (eight hundred bushels,) which closed a third side 
of the marked square. The fourth side was my neigh- 
bour's field. 

1824. In corn. The newly marled part showed as 
early and as great benefit as was found in 1820 — but 
was very inferior to the old, until the latter was ten 
or twelve inches high, when it began to give evidence 
of the fatal efiects of using this manure too heavily. 
The disease thus produced became worse and worse, 
until many of the plants had been killed, and still more 
were so stunted, as to leave no hope of their being 
otherwise than barren. The efiects will be known 
from the measurements, which were made nearly on 
the same ground as the corresponding marks in 1820, 
and will be exhibited in the table, together with the 
products of the succeeding rotation. Besides the gene- 
ral injury suffered here in 1824, there were one hun- 
dred and three corn hills in one of the measured quar- 
ter acres (in C) or more than one-sixth, entirely bar- 
ren, and eighty-nine corn hills in another quarter 
acre (D.) In counting these, none of the missing hills 
were included, as these plants might have perished 
from other causes. 

L 2 



136 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 







PRODUCT IN SHELLED CORX, PER ACRE. 




1820. 


1824. 


1828. 






October 13. 


October 16. 


October 13. 






Bush. Pecks. 


Bush. Pecks. 


Bush. Pecks. 


A 


Not marled. 


14 2 


16 1 


11 3i 


B 


Not marled until 










1823, - 


15 1 


28 


19 2 


C 


^ r 


25 


19 2 


15 


D 


C Marled, < 


27 3i 


20 


19 


E 


J C 


30 1 







The crops of wheat were less injured than the corn. 

For the crop of 1828, ploughed with three mules to 
each plough, from six to seven inches deep — seldom 
turning up any subsoil, (which formerly was within 
three inches of the surface,) and the soil looking still 
darker and richer than before. The ploughing of the 
square not marled, no where exceeded six inches. 



EXPERIMENT 11. 

The ground on which this experiment was made, 
was in the midst of nineteen or twenty acres of soil 
apparently similar in all respects — level, grey sandy 
loam, cleared about thirty years before, and reduced 
as low by cultivation as such soil could well be. The 
land that was marled and measured was about two 
hundred yards distant from the second experiment, and 
both places are supposed to have been originally simi- 
lar in all respects. This land had not been cultivated 
since 1815, when it was in corn — but had been once 
ploughed since, in Nov. 1817, which had prevented 
broom grass from taking possession. The ploughing 
then was four inches deep, and in five and a half feet 
beds, as recommended in Jirator. The growth in the 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 127 

year 1820, presented but little except poverty grass, 
running blackberry, and sorrel — and the land seemed 
very little if at all improved by its five successive 
years of rest. A small part of this land was covered 
with calcareous sand -^-^ — quantity not observed par- 
ticularly, but probably about six hundred bushels. 

Results. 1821 — Ploughed level, and planted in corn 
— distance 5\ X 3i feet. The measurement of spaces 
nearly adjoining, made in October, was as follows : 

23 X 25 corn hills, not marled, made 21 "| 

bushels, or ! very 

per acre, - - - - 8 i ( nearly, 

23 X 26 corn hills, marled, 51 22k } 

1822. At rest. Marled the whole, except a marked 
square of fifty yards, containing the space measured 
the preceding year. Marl -f-^-^ and finely divided — 
three hundred and fifty bushels to the acre — from the 
same bed as that used for experiment 4th. In August, 
ploughed the land, and sowed wheat early in October. 

1823. Much injury sustained by the wheat from 
Hessian fly, and the growth was not only mean, but 
very irregular — but it was supposed that the first marl- 
ed place was from fifty to one hundred per cent, bet- 
ter than the last, and the last superior to the included 
square not marled, in as great a proportion. 

1824. Again in corn. The efiects of disease from 
marling were as injurious here, both on the new and 
old part, as those described in Experiment 10. No 
measurement of products made, owing to my absence, 
when the corn was cut down for sowing wheat. 

1825. The injury from disease less on the wheat, 
than on the corn of the last year on the latest marling, 
and none perceptible on the oldest application. This 



12S ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

scourging rotation of three grain crops in four years, 
was particularly improper on marled land, and the more 
so on account of its poverty. 

1826. White clover had been sown thickly over 
forty-five acres, including this part, on the wheat, in 
January 1825. 

In the spring of 1826, it formed a beautiful green 
though low cover to even the poorest of the marled 
land. Marked spots, which were so diseased by over- 
marling, as not to produce a grain of corn or wheat, 
produced clover at least as good as other places not 
injured by that cause. The square, which had been 
sowed in the same manner, and on which the plants 
came up well, had none remaining by April 1826, ex- 
cept on a few small spots, all of which together would 
not have made three feet square. The piece not marl- 
ed, white with poverty grass, might be seen, and its 
outlines traced at some distance by its strong contrast 
with the surrounding dark weeds in winter, or the 
verdant turf of white clover the spring before. 

1827. Still at rest. No grazing allowed on the white 
clover. 

1828. In corn — the land broken in January, five 
inches deep. October 14th made the following mea- 
surements. 

In the square not marled 105 x 104^ feet (thirty-six 
square yards more than a quarter of an acre,) made 
one barrel of ears — or of grain, to the acre. 

Bushels. Pecks. 

9 U 
The same in 1821, 8 1^ 

Gain, 1 0^ 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 129 

Bushels. Pecks. 

Old marling — 105 x 104^ feet— 2:J barrels, 22 2 

The same in 1S21, 22 O5 

Gain, I2 

New marling, 105 x 104^ feet, on the side that 
seemed to be the most diseased, I5 barrels — or nearly 
twelve bushels. 

EXPERIMENT 12. 

On nine acres of sandy loam, marled in 182 9 at four 
hundred bushels (-//o) nearly an acre was manured 
during the same summer, by penning cattle : with the 
expectation of preserving the manure, double the quan- 
tity of marl, eight hundred bushels in all, was laid on 
that part. The field in corn in 1820 — in wheat, 1821 
— and at rest 1822 and 1823. 

JResult 1824. In corn, the second rotation after 
marling. The effects of the dung has not much dimin- 
ished, and that part shows no damage from the quan- 
tity of marl, though the surrounding corn, marled only 
half as thickly, gave signs of general, though very 
slight injury from that cause. 

EXPERIMENT 13. 

Nearly two acres of loamy sand, was covered with 
farm-yard manure, and marl (-jVo) ^^ ^^^^ same time, 
in the spring of 1822, and tended in corn the same 
year, followed by wheat. The quantity of marl not 
remembered — but it must have been heavy (say not 
less than six hundred bushels to the acre) as it was put 
on to fix and retain the manure, and I had then no fear 
of damage from heavy dressings. 



130 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

Result. 1825. Again in corn — and except on a 
small spot of sand almost pure, no signs of disease from 
over-marling. 

EXPERIMENT 14. 

The soil known in this part of the country by the 
name of '* free light land" has so peculiar a character, 
that it deserves a particular notice. It belongs to the 
slopes and waving lands, between the ridges and the 
water courses, but has nothing of the durability, which 
slopes of medium fertility sometimes possess. In its 
woodland state it would be called rich, and may re- 
main productive for a few crops after clearing — but it 
is rapidly exhausted, and when poor, seems as unim- 
provable by vegetable manures as the poorest ridge 
lands. In its virgin state, this soil might be supposed 
to deserve the name of neutral — but its productive 
power is so fleeting, and acid growths and qualities so 
surely follow its exhaustion, that we must infer that 
it is truly an acid soil. 

The subject of this experiment presents soil of this 
kind with its peculiar characters unusually well mark- 
ed. It is a loamy sandy soil (the sand coarse) on a 
similar subsoil of considerable depth. The surface 
waving — almost hilly in some parts. The original 
growth principally red oak, hickory, and dogwood — 
not many pines, and very little whortleberry. Cut 
down in 1816 and put in corn the next year. The crop 
was supposed to be twenty-five bushels to the acre. 
Wheat succeeded, and was still a better crop for so 
sandy a soil — making twelve to fifteen bushels, as it 
appeared standing. After a year of rest, and not grazed, 



ON CALCAREOtTS MANURES. 131 

the next corn crop of 1S20, was evidently considerably 
inferior to the first — and the wheat of 1821, (which 
however was a very bad crop from too wet a season) 
could not have been more than five bushels to the acre. 
In January 1820, a piece of 1^ acres was limed, at one 
hundred bushels the acre. The lime being caught by 
rain before it was spread, formed small lumps of mor- 
tar on the land, and produced no benefit on the corn 
of that year, but could be seen slightly in the wheat 
of 1S21. The land again at rest in 1822 and 23, when 
it was marled, at six hundred bushels, (-^^^q) without 
omitting the limed piece — and all sowed in wheat that 
fall. In 1824, the wheat was found to be improved 
by the marl, but neither that, nor the next, of 1828, 
was equal to its earliest product of wheat. The limed 
part showed injury from the quantity of manure, in 
1824, but none since. The field was now under the 
regular four shift rotation, and continued to recover — 
but did not surpass its first crop until 1831, when it 
brought rather more than thirty bushels of corn to the 
acre — five or six more than its supposed first crop. 

Adjoining this piece, six acres of similar soil were 
grubbed and belted in August 1826 — marl at six hun- 
dred to seven hundred bushels (jW) spread just be- 
fore. But few of the trees died until the summer of 
1827. 1828, planted in corn: the crop did not ap- 
pear heavier than would have been expected if no marl 
had been applied — but no part had been left without, 
for comparison. 1829 — wheat. 1830, at rest. 1831, 
in corn, and the product supposed to be near or quite 
thirty-five bushels — or an increase of thirty-five or 
forty per cent, on the first crop. No measurement 
was made — but the product was estimated by com- 



132 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

parison with an adjacent piece, which measured thirty- 
one bushels, and which was evidently something in- 
ferior to this piece.* 

The operation of marl on this kind of soil, seems to 
add to the previous product very slowly, compared 
with other soils — but it is not the less effectual and 
profitable, in fixing and retaining the vegetable matter 
accumulated by nature, which otherwise would be 
quickly dissipated by cultivation, and lost forever. 

* 1000 grains of this soil, taken in 1826 from the part that had been 
both limed and marled, was found to consist of 
811 of silicious sand moderately coarse, mixed with a few grains 

of coarse shelly matter. 
158 — finely divided earthy matter, &c. 
31— loss. 



1000 



At the same time, from the edge of the adjoining woodland which 
formed the next described clearing, and which had not then been 
marled, a specimen of soil was taken from between the depths of 
one and three inches — and found to consist of the following pro- 
portions. This spot was believed to be rather lighter than the other 
in its natural state. 

865 grains of silicious sand, principally coarse — 

107 — finely divided earthy matter, &c. 
28— loss. 

1000 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 133 



CHAPTER XI. 

EFFECTS OF CALCAREOUS MANURES ON EXHAUSTED 

ACID SOILS, UNDER THEIR SECOND GROWTH 

OP TREES. 

Proposition 5. Continued. 

Not having owned much land under a second growth 
of pines, I can only refer to two experiments of this 
kind. The improvement in both these cases has been 
so remarkable, as to induce the belief that the old fields 
to be found on every farm, which have been exhausted 
and turned out of cultivation . thirty or forty years, 
offer the most profitable subjects for the application of 
calcareous manures. 

experiment 15. 

May 1826. Marled about eight acres of land under 
its second growth, by opening paths for the carts, ten 
yards apart. Marl ■y^%, put five hundred to six hun- 
dred bushels to the acre — and spread in the course of 
the summer. In August, belted slightly all the pines 
that were as much as eight inches through, and cut 
down or grubbed the smaller growth, of which there 
was very little. The pines (which were the only trees,) 
stood thick, and were mostly from eight to twelve 
inches in diameter — eighteen inches where standing 
thin. The land joined Exp. 14 on one side — but this 
is level, and on the other side joins ridge woodland, 
which soon becomes like the soil of Exp. 1 . This piece, 
M 



134 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

in its virgin state, was probably of a nature between 
those two soils — but more like the ridge soil, than the 
'' free light land.'' No information has been obtained 
as to the state of this land when its former cultivation 
was abandoned. The soil, (that is what has since been 
turned by the plough,) a whitish loamy sand, on a 
subsoil of the same: in fact, all was subsoil, before 
ploughing, except half an inch or three quarters, on the 
top, which was principally composed of rotted pine 
leaves. Above this thin layer, were the later dropped 
and unrotted leaves, lying loosely several inches thick. 

The pines showed no symptom of being killed, un- 
til the autumn of 1827, when their leaves began to 
have a tinge of yellow. To suit the cultivation with 
the surrounding land, this piece was laid down in 
wheat for its first crop, in October 1827. For this pur- 
pose the few logs, the boughs, and grubbed bushes 
were heaped, but not burnt — the grain sowed on the 
coat of pine leaves, and ploughed in by two-horse 
ploughs, in as slovenly a manner as may be supposed 
— and a wooden-tooth harrow passed over to pull down 
the heaps of leaves, and roughest furrows. 

Results. The wheat was thin, but otherwise looked 
well while young. The surface was again soon cover- 
ed, by the leaves dropping from the now dying trees. 
On April 2d. 1828, most of the trees were nearly dead, 
though but few of them entirely. The wheat was then 
taller than any in my crop — and when ripe, was a sur- 
prising crop, for such land, and such tillage. 

1829 and 1830. At rest. Late in the spring of 1830 
an accidental fire passed over the land — but the then 
growing vegetation prevented all the older cover being 
burnt, though some was destroyed every where. 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 135 

1831. In corn. The growth excited the admiration 
of all who saw it, and no one estimated the product so 
low as it actually proved to be. A square of four (two 
pole) chains, or four-tenths of an acre, measured on 
November 25th, yielded at the rate of thirty-one and 
three-eighths bushels of grain to the acre. 

EXPERIMENT 16. 

In a field of acid sandy loam, long under the usual 
cultivation, a piece of five or six acres was covered by 
a second growth of pines thirty-nine years old, as sup- 
posed from that number of rings being counted on some 
of the stumps. The largest trees were eighteen or 
twenty inches through. This ground was altogether 
on the side of a slope, steep enough to lose soil by 
washing, and more than one old shallow gulley re- 
mained to confirm the belief of the injury that had been 
formerly sustained from that cause. These circum- 
stances, added to all the surrounding land having been 
continued under cultivation, made it evident that this 
piece had been turned out of cultivation because greatly 
injured by tillage. It was again cut down in the win- 
ter of 1824-5 — many of the trees furnished fence rails, 
and fuel — and the remaining bodies w^ere heaped and 
burnt some months after, as well as the large brush. 
In August it was marled, supposed at six-hundred 
bushels (j-J-q) — twice coultered in August and Septem- 
ber, and sowed in w^heat — the seed covered by trowel 
ploughs. The leaves and much of the smaller brush 
left on the ground, made the ploughing troublesome 
and imperfect. The crop (1826) was remarkably good 
— and still better were the crops of corn and wheat in 



136 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

the ensuing rotation, after two years of rest. On the 
last crop of wheat (1830) clover was sowed — and mow- 
ed for hay in 1831. The growth stood about eighteen 
inches high, and never have I seen so heavy a crop on 
sandy and acid soil, even from the heaviest dunging, 
the utmost care, and the most favoui-able season. The 
clover grew well in the bottoms of the old gullies, 
which are still plainly to be seen, and which no means 
had been used to improve, except what all the land 
had received » 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 137 



CHAPTER XII. 

EFFECTS OF CALCAREOUS MANURES, ON NEUTRAL 
SOILS, ALONE, OR WITH GYPSUM. 

Proposition 5. Continued. 

Applications of calcareous earth alone, to calcareous 
soils, are so manifestly useless, that only two experi- 
ments of that kind have been made, neither of which 
has had any improving effect that could be observed, in 
the twelve years that have since elapsed. 

When calcareous manures have been applied to neu- 
tral soils, whether new or worn, no perceptible benefit 
has been obtained on the earliest crops. The subse- 
quent improvement has gradually increased as w^ould 
be expected from the power of fixing manures, attri- 
buted to calcareous earth. But however satisfactory 
these general results are to myself, they are not such 
as could be reported in detail, with any advantage to 
other persons. It is sufficiently difficult to make fair 
and accurate experiments, where early and remarkable 
results are expected. But no cultivator of a farm can 
bestow enough care, and patient observation, to obtain 
true results from experiments that scarcely will show 
their first feeble efiects, in several years after the com- 
mencement. On a mere experimental farm, such things 
may be possible — but not where the main object of 
the farmer is profit from his general and varied opera- 
tions. The effects of changes of season, of crops, of 
the mode of tillage — the auxiliary efiects of other ma- 

M 2 



138 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

nures-^and many other circumstances, would serve to 
defeat any observations of the progress of a slow im- 
provement, though the ultimate result of the general 
practice might be abundantly evident. 

Another cause of my being unable to state with any 
precision the practical benefit of marling neutral soils, 
arises from the circumstance that nearly all the calca- 
reous manure thus applied, has been accompanied by 
a natural admixture of gypsum : and though I feel con- 
fident in ascribing some effects to one, and some to the 
other of these two kinds of manure, yet this division 
of operation must rest merely on opinion, and cannot 
be received as certain, by any other than him who 
makes and carefully observes the experiments. Some 
of these applications will be described, that other per- 
sons may draw their own conclusions from them. 

The cause of these manures being applied in con- 
junction was this. A singular bed of marl lying under 
Coggin's Point, and the only one within a convenient 
distance to most of the neutral soil, contains a very 
small proportion (perhaps one to two per cent.) of 
gypsum, scattered irregularly through the mass, sel- 
dom visible, though sometimes to be met with in small 
crystals. The calcareous ingredient is generally about 
_?-JL. — sometimes -j-^-^- If this manure had been used 
before its gypseous quality was discovered, all its 
effects would have been ascribed to calcareous earth 
alone, and the most erroneous opinions might thence 
have been formed of its mode of operation.* 

* what led me to suspect the presence of gypsum in this bed 
of fossil shells, was the circumstance that throughout its whole ex- 
tent of near a mile along the river bank, this bed lies on another 
earth, of peculiar character and appearance, and which in many 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 139 

This gypseous marl has been used on fifty-six acres, 
most of which was neutral soil — and generally, if not 
universally, with early as well as permanent benefits. 
The following experiments show results more striking 

places exhibits gypsum, in crystals of various sizes. This earth 
has evidently once been a bed of fossil shells, like what still remains 
above — but nothing now is left of the shells, except numerous im- 
pressions of their forms. Not the smallest proportion of calcareous 
earth can be found — and the gypsum into which it must have been 
changed (by meeting with sulphuric acid, orsulphuret of iron,) has 
also disappeared in most places, and in others, remains only in small 
quantities — say from the smallest perceptible proportion, to fifteen 
or twenty per cent, of the mixed mass. In some rare cases, this 
gypseous earth is sufficiently abundant to be used profitably as ma- 
nure, as has been done, by Mr. Thomas Cocke of Tarbay, as well 
as myself. It is found in the greatest quantity, and also the richest 
in gypsum, at Evergreen, two miles below City Point. There the 
gypsum frequently forms large crystals of varied and beautiful 
forms. The distance that this bed of gypseous earth extends is 
about seven miles, interrupted only by some formations of soil by 
alluvion. 

In the bed of gypseous marl above described, there are regular 
layers of a calcareous rock, which was too hard to use profitably 
for manure, and which caused the greatest impediment to obtaining 
the softer part. This rock contains between eighty-five and ninety 
per cent, of pure calcareous earth, besides a little gypsum and iron. 
It makes excellent lime for cement, mixed with twice its bulk of 
sand — and has been used for part of the brick-work, and all the 
plastering of my present dwelling house, and for several of my 
neighbours' houses. The whole body of marl also contains a minute 
proportion of some soluble salts, which possibly may have some 
influence on the operation of the substance, as manure, or cement. 

Thus, from the examination of a single body of marl, there have 
been obtained not only a rich calcareous manure, but also gypsum, 
and a valuable cement. Similar formations may perhaps be abun- 
dant elsewhere, and their value unsuspected, and likely to remain 
useless. This particular body of marl has no outward appearance 
of even its calcareous character. It would be considered, on slight 
observation, a mass of gritty clay, of no worth whatever. 



140 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

than have been usually obtained, but all agree in their 
general character. 

EXPERIMENT 17. 

1819. Across the shelly island numbered 3 in 
the examinations of soils, (page 55) but where the land 
was less calcareous, a strip of three quarters of an acre 
was covered with muscle-shell marl. Touching this 
through its whole length, another strip was covered 
with gypseous marl, {^%%) at the rate of two hundred 
and fifty bushels. 

Results. 1819. In corn. No perceptible effect from 
the muscle shells. The gypseous marling considerably 
better than on either side of it. 

1820. Wheat — less difference. 

1821. Grazed. Natural growth of white clover 
thickly set on the gypseous marling, much thinner on 
the muscle shells, and still less of it where no marl had 
been applied. 

The whole field afterwards was put in wheat on 
summer fallow every second year, and grazed the in- 
tervening year — a course very unfavourable for ob- 
serving, or permitting to take place, any effects of gyp- 
sum. Nothing more was noted of this experiment 
until 1825, when cattle were not turned in until the 
clover reached its full size. The strip covered with 
gypseous marl showed a remarkable superiority over 
the other marled piece, as well as the land which was 
still more calcareous by nature, and produced better 
in 1820. In several places, the white clover stood 
thickly a foot in height. 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 141 



EXPERIMENT 18. 

A strip of a quarter acre passing through rich black 
neutral loam, covered with gypseous marl at two hun- 
dred and fifty bushels. 

Results. 1S18. In corn. By July, the marled part 
seemed the best by fifty per cent., but afterwards the 
other land gained on it, and little or no difierence was 
apparent, when the crop was matured. 

1819. Wheat — no difierence. 

1820 and 1821. At rest. In the last summer, the 
marled strip could again be easily traced, by the entire 
absence of sorrel, (which had been gradually increasing 
on this land since it had been secured from grazing,) 
and still more by its very luxuriant growth of bind* 
foot clover, which was thrice as good as that on the 
adjoining ground. 

EXPERIMENT 19. 

1822. On a body of neutral soil which had been re- 
duced quite low, but was well manured in 1819 when 
last cultivated, gypseous marl was spread on nine acres, 
at the rate of three hundred bushels. This terminated 
on one side at a strip of muscle-shell marl ten yards 
wide — its rate not remembered, but it was certainly 
thicker in proportion to the calcareous earth contained, 
than the other, which I always avoided laying on 
heavily, for fear of causing injury by too much gyp- 
sum. The line of division between the two marls, was 
through a clay loam. The subsoil was a retentive clay, 
which caused the rain water to keep the land very wet 
through the winter, and early part of spring. 



142 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

Results. 1822. In corn, followed by wheat in 1823: 
not particularly noticed — but the benefits must have 
been very inconsiderable. All the muscle-shell marl- 
ing, and four acres of the gypseous, sowed in red clo- 
ver, which stood well, but was severely checked, and 
much of it killed, by a drought in June, when the 
sheltering wheat was reaped. During the next winter 
my horses had frequent access to this piece, and by 
their trampling in its wet state, must have injured both 
land and clover. From these disasters, the clover re- 
covered surprisingly, and in 1824, two mowings were 
obtained, which though not heavy, were better than 
from any of my previous attempts to raise this grass. 
In 1825, the growth was still better, and yielded more 
to the scythe. This was the first time that I had seen 
clover worth mowing on the third year after sowing — 
and had never heard of its being comparable to the 
second year's growth, any where in the lower coun- 
try. The growth on the muscle-shell marling was 
very inferior to the other, and was not mowed at all 
the last year, being thin and low, and almost eaten out 
by wire grass. 

1826. In corn — and it was remarkable that the dif- 
ference shown the last year was reversed, the muscle- 
shell marling now having much the best crop. 

In these and other applications to neutral soils, I as- 
cribe the earliest efiects entirely to gypsum, as well 
as the peculiar benefit shown to clover, throughout. 
The later effects on grain, are due to the calcareous 
earth in the manure. 

Another opinion was formed from the effects of gyp- 
seous marl, which may lead to profits nmch more im- 
portant i\im any to be derived from the limited use of 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 143 

this, or any similar mineral compound — viz : that gyp- 
sum may be profitably used after calcareous ma- 
nures^ on soils on ivhich it was totally inefficient 
before. I do not present this as an established fact, of 
universal application — for the results of some of my 
own experiments are directly in opposition. But how- 
ever it may be opposed by some facts, the greater 
weight of evidence furnished by my experiments and 
observations, decidedly supports this opinion. If cor- 
rect, its importance to our low country is inferior only 
to the value of calcareous manures — which value, may 
be almost doubled, if the land is thereby fitted for the 
wonderful effects of gypsum and clover. 

It is well known that gypsum has failed entirely as 
a manure on nearly all the land on which it has been 
tried in the tide-water district — and we may learn 
from various publications, that as little general success 
has been met with along the Atlantic coast, as far 
north as Long Island. To account for this general fail- 
ure of a manure so efficacious elsewhere, some one 
offered a reason, which was received without examina- 
tion, and which is still considered by many as suffi- 
cient, viz. that the influence of salt vapours destroyed 
the power of gypsum on and near the sea coast. But 
the same general worthlessness of that manure extends 
one hundred miles higher than the salt w^ater of the 
rivers — and the lands where it is profitably used, are 
much m.ore exposed to sea air. Such are the rich neu- 
tral soils of Carle's Neck, Shirley, Berkley, Brandon, 
and Sandy Point on James River, on all which gypsum 
on clover has been extensively and profitably used. 
On acid soils, I have never heard of enough benefit 
being obtained from gypsum to induce the cultivator 



144 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

to extend its use further than making a few small ex- 
periments. When any effect has been produced on an 
acid soil, (so far as instructed by my own experience, 
or the information of others,) it has been caused by 
applying to small spaces, comparatively large quan- 
tities — and even then, the effects were neither con- 
siderable, durable, nor profitable. Such have been 
the results of many small experiments made on my 
own acid soils — and very rarely was the least percep- 
tible effect produced. Yet on some of the same soils, 
after marling, the most evident benefits have been ob- 
tained from gypsum on clover. The soils on which 
the 1st and 10th Experiments were made, (at some 
distance from the measurements,) had both been tried 
with gypsum, and at different rates of thickness, be- 
fore marling, without the least effect. Several years 
after both had been marled, gypseous earth (from the 
bed described in the note to page 138,) was spread at 
twenty bushels the acre, which gave four bushels of 
pure gypsum, on clover, and produced in some parts, 
a growth I have never seen surpassed. It is proper 
to state that such results have been produced only by 
heavy dressings. Mr. Thomas Cocke of Tarbay has 
this last spring (1831) sowed nearly four tons of Nova- 
Scotia gypsum on clover on marled land, a continua- 
tion of the same ridge that my 1st, 2d, 3d, and 4th 
Experiments were made on, and very similar soil. 
His dressing, at a bushel to the acre, before the sum- 
mer had passed, produced evident benefit, where it is 
absolutely certain that none could have been obtained 
before marling. 

On soils naturally calcareous, I have in some experi- 
ments greatly promoted the growth of corn, by gyp- 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 145 

sum, and have doubled the growth of clover on my 
best land of that kind. When the marl containing 
gypsum was applied, benefit from that ingredient was 
almost certain to be obtained. 

All these facts, if presented alone, would seem to 
prove clearly the correctness of the opinion, that the 
acidity of our soils caused the inefficacy of gypsum, 
and that the application of calcareous earth, which will 
remove the former, will also serve to bring the latter 
into useful operation. But this most desirable conclu- 
sion is opposed by the results of other experiments, 
which though fewer in number, are as strong as any 
of the facts that favour that conclusion. If the subject 
was properly investigated, those facts apparently in 
opposition, might be explained so as no longer to 
contradict this opinion — perhaps even help to confirm 
it. Good reasons, deduced from established chemical 
truths, may be ofiered to explain why the acidity of 
our soils should prevent the operation of gypsum : but 
it may be deemed premature to attempt the explanation 
of any supposed fact, before every doubt of its exist- 
ence has been first removed. The subject well de- 
serves a more full investigation from those who can 
be aided by more information, whether practical or 
scientific. [Appendix. H.] 

One of the circumstances will be mentioned, which 
appears most strongly opposed to the opinion which 
has been advanced. On the poor acid clay soil, of such 
peculiar and base qualities, which forms the subject of 
the 5th, 6th, and 7th Experiments, gypsum has been 
sufficiently tried, and has produced not the least benefit, 
either before marling, or afterwards. Yet the growth 
of clover on this land after marling, is fully equal to 
N 



1461 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

what might be expected from the best operation of 
gypsum. Now if it could be ascertained that a very 
small proportion of either sulphuric acid, or the suU 
phate of iron exists in this soil, it would completely 
explain away this opposing fact, and make it the strong- 
est support of my position. The sulphate of iron has 
been found in arable soil,* and sulphuric acid has been 
detected in certain clays, t I hare seen on the same 
farm a clay of very similar appearance to this soil, 
which had once contained one of these substances, as 
was proved by the formation of crystallized sulphate of 
lime, where the clay came in contact with calcareous 
earth. The sulphate of lime was found in the small 
fissures of the clay, extending sometimes one or two 
feet distant from the calcareous earth below. Pre- 
cisely tl>e same chemical change would take place in 
a soil containing sulphuric acid, or sulphate of iron, 
as soon as marl was applied. The sulphuric acid, 
(whether free or combined with iron) would imme- 
diately unite with the lime presented, and form gyp- 
sum, (sulphate of lime.) Proportions of these sub- 
stances too small perhaps to be detected by analysis, 
would be sufficient to form three or four bushels of 
gypsum to the acre — more than enough to produce the 
greatest effect on clover — and to prevent any benefit 
being derived from a subsequent application of gyp- 
sum. 

» Agr. Chem. page 141. f Kirwan on Manures. 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 147 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE DAMAGE CAUSED BY CALCAREOUS MANURE, AND 
ITS REMEDIES. 

Proposition 5. Continued. 

The injury or disease in grain crops produced by 
marling has so lately been presented to our notice, that 
the collection and comparison of many additional facts 
will be required before its cause can be satisfactorily 
explained. But the facts already ascertained will show 
how to avoid the danger in future, and to find reme- 
dies for the evils already inflicted by the injudicious 
use of calcareous manures. 

The earliest effect of this kind observed, was in 
May 1S24, on the field containing Experiment 10. 
The corn on the land marled four years before, sprang 
up and grew with all the vigour and luxuriance that 
was expected from the appearances of increased fer- 
tility exhibited by the soil, as has already been de- 
scribed, (page 125.) About the 20th of May the 
change commenced, and the worst symptoms of the 
disease were seen by the 11th of June. From having 
as deep a colour as young corn shows on the richest 
soils, it became of a pale sickly green. The leaves, 
when closely examined, seemed almost transparent — 
afterwards were marked through their whole length 
by streaks of rusty red, separated very regularly by 
what was then more of yellow than green — and next 



148 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

began to shrivel, and die downwards from their ex- 
tremities. The growth of many of the plants was 
nearly stopped. Still some few showed no sign of in- 
jury, and maintained the vigorous growth which they 
began with, so as by contrast more strongly to mark 
the general loss sustained. The appearance of the field 
was such, that a stranger would have supposed that he 
saw the crop of a rich soil exposed to the worst ravages 
of some destructive kind of insect : but neither on the 
roots or stalks of the corn could any thing be found to 
support that opinion. Before the 1st of August, this 
gloomy prospect had improved. Most of the plants 
seemed to have been relieved of the infliction, and to 
grow again with renewed vigour. But before that 
time, many were dead, and it was impossible that the 
others could so fully recover as to produce any thing 
approaching a full crop for the land. It has been 
shown in the report of the products of Flxp. 10, what 
diminution of crop was then sustained — ^and that the 
evil was not abated by the next cultivation. Still, 
neither of the diseased measured pieces has fallen as 
low as to its product before marling — nor do I think 
that such has been the result on any one acre on my 
farm, though many smaller spots have been rendered 
incapable of yielding a grain of corn or wheat. 

The injury caused to wheat by marling is not so easy 
to describe, though abundantly evident to the observer. 
Its earliest growth, like that of corn, is not affected. 
About the time for heading, the plants most diseased 
appear as if they were scorched, and when ripe, will 
be found very deficient in grain. On very poor spots, 
from which nearly all the soil has been washed, some- 
times fifty heads of wheat taken together would not 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 149 

furnish as many grains of wheat. This crop, however, 
suffers less than corn on the same land — perhaps be- 
cause its growth is nearly completed by the time that 
the season begins, to which the ill effects of calcareous 
manures seem confined. 

When these unpleasant discoveries were first made, 
two hundred and fifty acres had already been marled 
so heavily, that the same evil was to be expected to 
visit the whole. My labours thus bestowed for years 
had been greatly and unnecessarily increased — and the 
excess, worse than being thrown away, had served to 
take away that increase of crop, that lighter marling 
would have ensured. But though much and general in- 
jury was afterwards sustained from the previous work, 
yet it was lessened, and sometimes entirely avoided, 
by the remedial measures which were adopted. My 
observation and comparison of all the facts presented, 
led to the following conclusions, and pointed out the 
course to avoid the recurrence of the evil, and the 
means to lessen or remove it, where it had already 
been inflicted. 

1st. No injury has been sustained on any soil of my 
farm by marling not more heavily than two hundred 
and fifty heaped bushels to the acre, with marl of 
strength not exceeding ^^JL of calcareous earth. 

2d. Dressings twice as heavy seldom produce da- 
mage to the first crop on any soil — and never on the 
after crops on any calcareous, or good neutral soil — nor 
on any acid soil supplied plentifully with vegetable 
matter. 

3d. On acid soils marled too heavily, the injury is 
in proportion to the extent of one or all these circum- 

n2 



150 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

stances of the soil — poverty, sandiness, and previous 
severe cropping and grazing. 

4th. Clover, both red and white, will live and flour- 
ish on the spots most injured for grain crops, by marl- 
ing too heavily. On some of the land adjacent to the 
pieces measured in Exp. 10, and equally over-marled, 
very heavy red clover was raised in 1830, by adding 
gypsum. 

5th. All kinds of marl (or fossil shells) have some- 
times been injurious — but such effects have been more 
generally experienced from the dry yellow marl, than 
from the blue and wet. It is possible that some un- 
known ingredient in the former may add to its hurtful 
power. 

The inferences to be drawn from these facts are 
evident. They direct us to avoid injury by applying 
marl lightly at first, and to be still more cautious ac- 
cording to the existence of the circumstances stated as 
increasing the tendency of marl to do harm. Next, 
if the over-dose has already been given, to forbid 
grazing entirely, and to furnish putrescent manure as 
far as possible — or to omit one or two grain crops, so 
as to allow more vegetable matter to be fixed in the 
land — and to sow clover as soon as circumstances per- 
mit. One or more of these remedies have been used 
on most of my too heavily marled land, and with con- 
siderable, though not entire success. Putrescent ma- 
nure, to the extent that it can be applied, is efiectual. 
Other persons, who permitted close grazing, and adopt- 
ed a more scourging rotation of crops, have suffered 
more, from lighter dressings of marl than mine. 

But though the unlooked for damage sustained from 
this cause produced much loss and disappointment, and 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 151 

has greatly retarded the progress of my improvements, 
it did not stop my marling, nor abate my estimate of 
the value of the manure. If a cover of five hundred 
or six hundred bushels was so strong as to injure land 
of certain qualities, it seemed to be a fair deduction, 
that the benefit expected from so heavy a dressing, 
might have been obtained from half the quantity — if 
not on the first crop, at least on every one afterwards. 
That surely is nothing to be lamented. It also afibrd- 
ed some consolation, for the too heavy marlings already 
applied, that the soil was thereby fitted to seize and 
retain a greater quantity of vegetable matter, and ulti- 
mately, would reach a higher degree of fertility. 

The cause of this disease is less apparent than its 
remedies. It is certain that it is not produced merely 
by the quantity of calcareous earth in the soil. If it 
were so, similar effects would always be found on soils 
containing far greater proportions of that earth. Such 
effects are not known to any extent, except on soils 
formerly acid, and made calcareous artificially. The 
small spots of land that nature has made excessively 
calcareous and sandy (as the specimen 4, page ^^^) 
produce a pale feeble growth of corn, such as might be 
expected from a poor gravel — but w^hether the plants 
yield grain, or are barren, they show none of the pe- 
culiar symptoms of this disease which have been de- 
scribed. 

By calculation, it appears that the heaviest dressing 
causing injurious consequences, mixed to the depth of 
five inches, has not given to the soil a proportion of 
calcareous earth equal to two per cent. This proportion 
is greatly exceeded in our best shelly land, and no such 
disease is found there, even when the rich mould is 



152 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

nearly all washed away, and the shells mostly left. 
Very fertile soils in France and England sometimes 
contain twenty or thirty per cent, of calcareous earth. 
Among the soils of remarkable good qualities analyzed 
by Davy, one is stated to contain about -j^^y, and another, 
which was eight-ninths of silicious sand, contained 
nearly ^^^ of calcareous earth. Nor does he intimate 
that such proportions are very rare. Similar results 
have been stated, from analyses reported by Kirwan, 
Young, Bergman, and Rozier, (page 46,) and from 
all, the same deduction is inevitable, that much larger 
natural proportions of calcareous earth, than our dis- 
eased lands have received, are very common in France 
and England, without any such effect being produced. 
From the numerous facts of which these are exam- 
ples, it is certain that calcareous earth acting alone, or 
directly, has not caused this injury : and it seems most 
probable that the cause is some new combination of 
lime formed in acid soils only — and that this new com- 
bination is hurtful to grain under certain circumstances 
which we may avoid — and is highly beneficial to every 
kind of clover. Perhaps it is the salt of lime, formed 
by the calcareous manure with the acid of the soil, 
which not meeting with enough vegetable matter to 
combine with and fix in the soil, causes by its excess, 
all these injurious effects. 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 153 



CHAPTER XIV. 

RECAPITULATION OF THE EFFECTS OF CALCAREOUS 

MANURES, AND DIRECTIONS FOR THEIR MOST 

PROFITABLE APPLICATION. 

Proposition 5. Continued. 

From the foregoing experiments may be gathered 
most of the eiTects, both injurious and beneficial, to be 
expected from calcareous manures, on the several kinds 
of soils there described. Information obtained from 
statements in detail of agricultural experiments, is far 
more satisfactory to an inquirer, than a mere report 
of the general opinions of the experimenter, derived 
from the results. But however valuable may be this 
mode of reporting facts, it is necessarily deficient in 
method, clearness, and conciseness. It may therefore 
be useful to bring together the general results of these 
experiments in a somewhat digested form, to serve as 
rules for practice. Some other effects will also be 
stated, which are equally established by experience, 
but which did not belong to any accurately observed 
experiment. 

The results that have been reported confirm in al- 
most every particular the chemical powers before at- 
tributed to calcareous manures, in the theory of their 
action. It is admitted that causes and effects were not 
always proportioned — and that sometimes trivial appa- 
rent contradictions were presented, But this is inevi- 



154 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

table, even with regard to the best established doctrines, 
and the most perfect processes in agriculture. There 
are many practices universally admitted to be beneficial 
— yet there are none, which are not found sometimes 
useless, or hurtful, on account of some other attendant 
circumstance, which was not expected, and perhaps 
not discovered. Every application of calcareous earth 
to soil, is a chemical operation on a great scale. De- 
compositions and new combinations are produced, and 
in a manner generally conforming to the operator's 
expectations. But other and unknown agents may 
sometimes have a share in the process, and thus cause 
unlocked for results. Such differences between prac- 
tice and theory have sometimes occurred in my use 
of calcareous manures (as may be observed in some of 
the reported experiments) but they have neither been 
frequent, uniform, nor important. 

The benefit derived from marling will be in pro- 
portion to the vegetable or other putrescent matter 
given to the soil. It is essential that the cultivation 
should be mild, and no grazing permitted on poor 
lands. Wherever farm-yard manure is used, the land 
should be marled heavily, and if done previously, so 
much the better. The one manure cannot act by fix- 
ing the other, except so far as they are in contact, and 
both well mixed with the soil. 

On galled spots, from which all the soil has been 
washed, and where no plant can live, the application 
of marl alone is utterly useless. Putrescent manures 
alone would there have but little effect, unless in great 
quantity, and would soon be all lost. But marl and 
putrescent matter together serve to form a new soil, 
and thus both are brought into useful action : the marl 



o:^ CALCAREOUS MANURES. 155 

is made active, and the putrescent manure permanent. 
But though a fertile soil may thus be created, and fix- 
ed durably on galls otherwise irreclaimable, the cost 
will generally exceed the value of the land recovered, 
from the great quantity of putrescent matter required. 
Much of our acid hilly land, has been deprived by 
washing of a considerable portion of its natural soil, 
though not yet made entirely barren. The foregoing 
remarks equally apply to this kind of land, to the ex- 
tent that its soil has been carried off. It will be pro- 
fitable to apply marl to such land — but its effect will 
be diminished, in proportion to the previous removal 
of the soil. Calcareous soils are much less apt to wash, 
than other kinds, from the difference of texture. When 
a field that has been injured by washing, is marled, 
within a few years after, many of the old gullies will 
begin to produce vegetation, and show a soil gradually 
forming from the dead vegetables brought there by 
wind and rains, although no means should be used to 
aid this operation. 

The effect of marling will be much lessened by the 
soil being kept under exhausting cultivation. Such were 
the circumstances under which we may suppose that 
marl was tried and abandoned many years ago, in the 
cases referred to in page 102. Supposing that marl was 
to enrich by direct action, it is most probable that it 
was applied to some of the poorest and most exhausted 
land, for the purpose of giving the manure a fair trial. 
The disappointment of such ill-founded expectations, 
w\is a sufficient reason for the experiment not being 
repeated, or being scarcely ever referred to again, ex- 
cept as evidence of the worthlessness of marl. Yet 
with proper views of the action of this manure, this 



1=56 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

experiment might have as well proved at first, the 
e-orly efficacy and value of marl, as it now does its du- 
rability. 

When acid soils are equally poor, the increase of the 
first crop from marling will be greater on sandy, than 
on clay soils ; though the latter, by heavier dressings 
and longer time, may ultimately become the best land. 
The more acid the growth of any soil is, or would be, 
if suffered to stand, the more increase of crop may be 
expected from marl ; which is directly the reverse of 
the efiects of putrescent manures. The increase of the 
first crop on worn acid soil, I have never known un- 
der fifty per cent., and often is as much as one hun- 
dred — and the improvement continues to increase 
slowly under mild tillage. In this, and other general 
statements of effects, I suppose the land to bear not 
more than two crops in four years, and not to be sub- 
jected to grazing — and that a sufficient cover of marl 
has been laid on for use, and not enough to cause dis- 
ease. It is true, that it is difficult, if not impossible, 
to fix that proper medium, varying as it may on every 
change of soil, of situation, and of the kind of marl. 
But whatever error may be made in the proportion of 
marl applied, let it be on the side of light dressing, 
(except where putrescent manures are also laid on) — 
and if less increase of crop is gained to the acre, the cost 
and labour of marling will be lessened in a greater pro- 
portion. If, after tillage has served to mix the marl 
well with the soil, sorrel should still show to any ex- 
tent, it will sufficiently indicate that not enough marl 
had been applied, and that it may be added to, safely 
and profitably. If the nature of the soil, its condition 
and treatment, and the strength of the marl, all were 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 157 

known, it would be easy to direct the amount of a 
suitable dressing : but without knowing these circum- 
stances, it will be safest to give two hundred and fifty 
or three hundred bushels to the acre of worn acid soils, 
and at least twice as much to newly cleared, or well ma- 
nured land. Besides avoiding danger, it is more profita- 
ble to marl lightly at first on weak lands. If a farmer can 
carry out only ten thousand bushels of marl in a year, 
he will derive more product, and confer a greater 
amount of improvement, by spreading it over forty 
acres of the land intended for his next crop, than on 
twenty : though the increase to the acre, would pro- 
bably be greatest in the latter case. By the lighter 
dressing, the whole farm will be marled, and be stor- 
ing up vegetable matter, in half the time that it could 
be marled at double the rate. 

The greater part of the calcareous earth applied at 
one time cannot begin to act as manure, before several 
years have passed, owing to the coarse state of many 
of the shells, and the want of thoroughly mixing them 
with the soil. Therefore, if enough marl is applied to 
obtain its full effect on the first course of crops, there 
will be too much afterwards. 

Perhaps the greatest profit to be derived from marl- 
ing, though not the most apparent, is on such soils as 
are full of wasting vegetable matter. Here the efiect 
is mostly preservative, and the benefit may be great, 
even though the increase of crop may be very incon- 
siderable. Putrescent manure laid on any acid soil, 
or the natural vegetable cover of those newly cleared, 
without marl, would soon be lost, and the crops re- 
duced to one half, or less. But when marl is previously 
applied, this waste of fertility is prevented j and the 




1^8 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

estimate of benefit should not only include the actual 
increase of crop caused by marling, but as much more 
as the amount of the diminution, which would other- 
wise have followed. Every intended clearing of wood- 
land, and especially of that under a second growth, 
ought to be marled before cutting down — and it will 
be still better, if it can be done several years before. 
If the application is delayed until the new land is 
brought under cultivation, though much putrescent 
matter will be saved, still more must be wasted. By 
using marl some years before obtaining a crop from it, 
as many more growths of leaves will be converted to 
useful manure, and fixed in the soil — and the increased 
fertility will more than compensate for the delay. By 
such an operation, we make a loan to the soil, with a 
distant time for payment, but an ample security, and 
at a high rate of compound interest. 

Some experienced cultivators have believed that the 
most profitable way to manage pine old fields, when 
cleared of their second growth, was to cultivate them 
every year, until worn out — because, as they said, 
such land would not last much longer, no matter how 
mildly treated. This opinion, which seems so absurd — 
and is opposed to all the received rules for good hus- 
bandry, is considerably supported by the properties, 
which are here ascribed to such soils. When these 
lands are first cut down, an immense quantity of vege- 
table matter is accumulated on the surface — which, not- 
withstanding its accompanying acid quality, is capable 
of making two or three crops nearly or quite as good 
as the land was ever able to bear. But as the soil has 
no power to retain this vegetable matter, it will begin 
rapidly to decompose and waste, as soon as exposed 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 159 

to the sun, and will be lost, except so much as is caught 
while escaping, by the roots of growing crops. The 
previous application of marl, would make it profitable 
in these, as well as other cases, to adopt a mild and 
meliorating course of tillage. 

Less improvement will be obtained by marling worn 
soils of the kind called "free light land," than other 
acid soils which originally produced much more spar- 
ingly. The early productiveness of this kind of soil, 
and its rapid exhaustion by cultivation, at first view 
seem to contradict the opinion that durability and the 
ease of improving by putrescent manures, are propor- 
tioned to the natural fertility of the soil. But a full 
consideration of circumstances will show that no such 
contradiction exists. 

In defining the term natural fertility ^ it was stated 
that it should not be measured by the earliest products 
of a new soil, which might be either much reduced, or 
increased, by temporary causes. The early fertility 
of free light land is so rapidly destroyed, as to take 
away all ground for considering it as fixed in, and 
belonging to the soil. It is like the effect of dung on 
the same land afterwards, which throws out all its 
effect in the course of one or two years, and leaves 
the land as poor as before. But still it needs explana- 
tion why so much productiveness can at first be ex- 
erted by any acid soil, as in those described in the 14th 
Experiment The cause may be found in the follow- 
ing reasons. These soils, and also their subsoils, are 
principally composed of coarse sand, which makes 
them of more open texture than best suits pine, and 
(when rich enough) more favourable to other trees, the 
Leaves of which have no natural acid, and therefore 



160 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

decompose more readily. As fast as the leaves rot, 
they are of course exposed to waste — but the rains 
convey much of their finer parts down into the open 
soil, where the less degree of heat retards their final 
decomposition. Still this enriching matter is liable to 
be further decomposed, and to final waste : but though 
continually wasting, it is also continually added to by 
the rotting leaves above. The shelter of the upper 
coat of unrotted leaves, and the shade of the trees, 
cause the first as well as the last stages of decomposition 
to proceed slowly, and to favour the mechanical pro- 
cess of the products being mixed with the soil. But 
there is no chemical union of the vegetable matter with 
the soil. When the land is cleared, and opened by 
the plough, the decomposition of all the accumulated 
vegetable matter is hastened by the increased action of 
sun and air, and in a short time converts every thing 
into food for plants. This abundant supply suffices to 
produce two or three fine crops. But now, the most 
fruitful source of vegetable matter has been cut oflf — - 
and the soil is kept so heated (by its open texture) as 
to be unable to hold enriching matters, even if they 
were furnished. The land soon becomes poor, and 
must remain so, as long as these causes operate, even 
though cultivated under the mildest rotation. When 
the transient fertility of such a soil is gone, its acid 
qualities (which were before concealed in some mea- 
sure by so much enriching matter,) become evident. 
Sorrel and broom grass cover the land — and if allowed 
to stand, pines will take complete possession, because 
the poverty of the soil leaves them no rival to con- 
tend with. 

Marling deepens cultivated sandy soils, even lower 



OS CALCAREOUS MANURES. 161 

than the plough may have penetrated. This was an 
Unexpected result, and when first observed, seemed 
scarcely credible. But this effect also is a consequence 
of the power of calcareous earth of fixing manures. 
As stated in the foregoing paragraph, the soluble and 
finely divided particles of rotted vegetable matters are 
carried by the rains below the soil : but as there is no 
calcareous earth there to fix them, they must again 
rise in a gaseous form, after their last decomposition, 
unless previously taken up by growing plants. But 
after the soil is marled, calcareous as well as putres- 
cent matter is carried down by the rains as far as the 
soil is open enough for them to pass. This will always 
be as deep as the ploughing has been, and in loose earth, 
somewhat deeper — and the chemical union formed 
between these different substances, serves to fix both, 
and thus increases the depth of the soil. This effect 
is very different from the deepening of a soil by letting 
the plough run into the barren subsoil. If by this me- 
chanical process, a soil of only three inches is increased 
to five, as much as it gains in depth, it loses in rich- 
ness. But when a marled soil is deepened gradually, 
its dark colour and apparent richness is increased, as 
well as its depth. Formerly single-horse ploughs were 
used to break all my acid soils, and even they would 
often turn up subsoil. The average depth of soil on 
old land did not exceed three inches, nor two on the 
newly cleared. Even before marling was commenced, 
my ploughing had generally sunk into the subsoil — 
and since 1825, most of this originally thin soil has 
required three mules, or two good horses to a plough, 
to break the necessary depth. The soil is now from 
five to seven inches deep generally, from the joint 

o 2 



162 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

operation of marling and deepening the ploughing a 
little in the beginning of every course of crops. 

On acid soils without manure, it is scarcely possible 
to raise red clover — and even with every aid from 
putrescent manure, the crop will be both uncertain and 
unprofitable. The recommendation of this grass as part 
of a general system of improvement, by the author of 
Arator, is sufficient to prove that his improvements 
were made on soils far better than such as are general. 
After much waste of seed and labour, and years of dis- 
appointed efibrts, I gave up clover as utterly hopeless. 
After marling the fields on which raising clover had 
been vainly attempted, there arose from its scattered 
and feeble remains, a growth which served to prove 
that its cultivation would then be safe and profitable. 
It has since been gradually extended over most of the 
fields. It will stand well, and maintain a healthy 
growth on the poorest marled land : but the crop is too 
scanty for mowing, or perhaps for profit of any kind 
on most light soils, unless aided by gypsum. Newly 
cleared lands yield better clover than the old, though 
the latter may produce as heavy grain crops. The 
remarkable crops of clover raised on very poor clay 
soils, after marling, have been already described. This 
grass, even without gypsum, and still more if aided 
by that manure, may add greatly to the improving 
power of marl : but it will do more harm than service, 
if we greedily take from the soil too large a share of 
this supply of putrescent matter. 

Some other plants less welcome than clover, are 
still more favoured by marling. Greensward, blue 
grass, wire grass, and partridge pea, will soon extend 
so as to be not less impediments to tillage, than evi- 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 163 

deuces of an entire change in the character and power 
of the soil. 

With all the increase of products that I have ascribed 
to marling, the heaviest crops stated may appear in- 
considerable to farmers who till soils more favoured 
by nature. Corn yielding twenty-five or thirty bushels 
to the acre, is doubled by many natural soils in the 
western states, and ten or twelve bushels of wheat, 
will still less compare with the product of the best 
limestone clay land. The cultivators of our poor re- 
gion, however, know that such products, without any 
future increase, would be a prodigious addition to their 
present gains. Still it is doubtful whether these re- 
wards are sufficiently high to tempt many of my coun- 
trymen speedily to accept them. The opinions of 
many farmers have been so long fixed, and their habits 
are so uniform and unvarying, that it is difficult to 
excite them to adopt any new plan of improvement, 
except by promises of profits so great, that an uncom- 
mon share of credulity would be necessary to expect 
their fulfilment. The nett profits of marling, if esti- 
mated at twenty or even fifty per cent, per annum on 
the expense, forever — or the assurance by good evi- 
dence, of doubling the crops of a farm in twelve years 
— will scarcely attract the attention of those who would 
embrace without any scrutiny a plan that promised 
five times as much. Hall's scheme for cultivating corn 
was a stimulus exactly suited to their lethargic state : 
and that impudent impostor found many steady old- 
fashioned farmers willing to pay for his directions for 
making two thousand five hundred bushels of corn, 
with the hand labour of only two men. 



164 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE PERMANENCY OP CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

Proposition 5. Continued. 

It has been stated that the ground on which an old 
experiment was made and abandoned as a failure more 
than fifty years ago, still continues to show the effects 
of marl. Lord Kames mentions a fact of the continued 
beneficial effect of an application of calcareous manure, 
which was known to be one hundred and twenty years 
old.^ Every author who has treated of manures of 
this nature, attests their long duration : but when they 
say that they will last twenty years, or even one hun- 
dred and twenty years, it amounts to the admission 
that at some future time the effects of these manures 
will be lost. This I deny — and from the nature and 
action of calcareous earth, claim for its effects a dura- 
tion that will have no end. 

If calcareous earth applied as manure is not after- 
wards combined with some acid in the soil, it must 
retain its first form, which is as indestructible, and as 
little liable to be wasted by any cause whatever, as 
the sand and clay that form the other earthy ingredients 
of the soil. The only possible vent for its loss, is the 
very small proportion taken up by the roots of plants, 

• Gentleman Farmer, page 266, 2d Edin. Ed. 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 165 

which is so inconsiderable as scarcely to deserve nam- 
ing. 

Clay is a manure for sandy soils, serving to close 
their too open texture. When so applied, no one can 
doubt but that this effect of the clay will last as long 
as its presence. Neither can calcareous earth cease to 
exert its peculiar powers as a manure, any more than 
clay can, by the lapse of time, lose its power of making 
sands more firm and adhesive. Making due allowance 
for the minute quantity drawn up into growing plants, 
it is as absurd to assert that the calcareous earth in a 
soil, whether furnished by nature or not, can be ex- 
hausted, as that cultivation can deprive a soil of its 
sand or clay. 

But on my supposition that calcareous earth will 
change its form by combining with acid in the soil, 
it may perhaps be doubted whether it is equally safe 
from waste under its new form. It must be admitted, 
that the permanency of this compound cannot be proved 
by its insolubility, or other properties, because neither 
the kind nor the nature of the salt itself is yet known. 
But judging from the force with which good neutral 
soils resist the exhaustion of their fertility, and their 
always preserving their peculiar character, it cannot 
be believed that the calcareous earth once present, was 
lessened in durability by its chemical change of form. 
It has been contended that the action of calcareous 
earth is absolutely necessary to make a poor acid soil 
fertile : but it does not thence follow that other sub- 
stances, and particularly this salt of lime, may not 
serve as well to preserve the fertility bestowed by cal- 
careous earth. All that is required for this purpose, 
is the power of combining with putrescent matter, and 



166 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

thereby fixing it in the soil : and judging solely from 
effects, this power seems to be possessed in an eminent 
degree by this new combination of lime. If this salt 
is the oxalate of lime, (as there is most reason to be- 
lieve,) it is insoluble in water, and consequently safe 
from waste — and the same property belongs to most 
other combinations of lime with vegetable acid. The 
acetate of lime is soluble in water, and while alone, 
might be carried off by rains. But if it combines with 
putrescent matter, by chemical affinity, its previous 
solubility will no longer remain. Copperas is easily 
soluble : but when it forms one of the component parts 
of ink, it can no longer be separately dissolved by 
water, or taken away from the colouring matter com- 
bined with it. In rich limestone soils, and some of our 
best river lands, in which no calcareous earth remains, 
we may suppose that its change of form took place cen- 
turies ago. Yet however scourged and injured by cul- 
tivation, they still show as strongly as ever those 
qualities which were derived from their former calca- 
reous ingredient. When the dark colour of such soils, 
their power of absorption, and of holding manures, 
their friability, and their peculiar fitness for clover and 
certain other plants, are no longer to be distinguished, 
then, and not before, may the salt of lime be consider- 
ed as lost to the soil. 

If we keep in mind the mode by which calcareous 
manure acts, its effects may be anticipated for a much 
longer time than my experience extends. Let us trace 
the supposed effects, from the causes, on an acid soil, 
kept under meliorating culture. As soon as applied, 
the calcareous earth combines with all the acid then 
present, and to that extent, is changed to the vegetable 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 167 

salt of lime. The remaining calcareous earth continues 
to take up the after formations of acid, and (together 
with the salt so produced,) to fix putrescent manures, 
as fast as these substances are presented, until all the 
lime has been combined with acid, and all their pro- 
duct combined with putrescent matter. Both those 
actions then cease. During all the time necessary for 
those changes, the soil has been regularly increasing in 
productiveness ; and it may be supposed that before 
their completion, the product had risen from ten to 
thirty bushels of corn to the acre. The soil has then 
become neutral. It can never lose its ability (under 
the mild rotation supposed,) of producing thirty bush- 
els — but it has no power to rise above that product. 
Vegetable food continues to form, but is mostly wasted^ 
because the salt of lime is already combined with as 
much as it can act on ; and whatever excess of vese- 
table matter remains on the soil, is kept useless by 
acid also newly formed, and left free and noxious, as 
before the application of calcareous earth. But though 
this excess of acid may balance and keep useless the 
excess of vegetable matter, it cannot affect the previ- 
ously fixed fertility, nor lessen the power of the soil 
to yield its then maximum product of thirty bushels. 
In this state of things, sorrel may again begin to grow, 
and its return may be taken as notice that a new marl- 
ing is needed, and will afford additional profit, in the 
same manner as before, by destroying the last formed 
acid, and fixing the last supply of vegetable matter. 
Thus perhaps five or ten bushels more may be added 
to the previous product, and a power given to the 
soil gradually to increase as much more, before it will 
stop again, for similar reasons, at a second maximum 



16S ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

product of forty or fifty bushels. I pretend not to fix 
the time necessary for the completion of one or more 
of these gradual changes : but as the termination of 
each, and the consequent additional marling, will add 
new profits, it ought to be desired by the farmer, in- 
stead of his wishing that his first labour of marling 
each acre, may also be the last required. Every per- 
manent addition of five bushels of corn to the previous 
average croj), will more than repay the heaviest ex- 
penses that have yet been encountered in marling. 
But whether a second application of marl is made or 
not, I cannot imagine such a consequence as the actual 
decrease of the product once obtained. My earliest 
marled land has been severely cropped, compared to 
the rotation supposed above, and yet has continued to 
improve, though at a slow rate. The part first marled 
in 1818, has since had only four years of rest in fif- 
teen ; and has yielded nine crops of grain, one of cot- 
ton, and one year clover, twice mowed. This piece, 
however, besides being sown with gypsum, (with little 
benefit,) once received a light cover of rotted corn-stalk 
manure. The balance of the same piece of land (Exp. 
1.) was marled for the crop of 1821 — has borne the 
same treatment since, and has had no other manure, 
except gypsum once, (in 1830,) which acted well. 
These periods of twelve and fifteen years are very 
short to serve as grounds to decide on the eternal du- 
ration of a manure. But it can scarcely be believed 
that the effect of any temporary manure, would not 
have been somewhat abated by such a course of severe 
tillage. Under milder treatment, there can be no 
doubt but there would have been much greater im- 
provement. 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 169 

If subjected to a long course of the most severe cul- 
tivation, a soil could not be deprived of its calcareous 
ingredient whether natural or artificial : but though still 
calcareous, it would be in the end, reduced to barren- 
ness, by the exhaustion of its vegetable matter. Under 
the usual system of exhausting cultivation, marl cer- 
tainly improves the product of acid soils, and may con- 
tinue to add to the previous amount of crop, for a con- 
siderable time : yet the theory of its action instructs 
us, that the ultimate result of marling under such 
circumstances, must be the more complete destruction 
of the land, by enabling it to yield all its vegetable 
food to growing plants, which would have been pre- 
vented by the continuance of its former acid state. An 
acid soil yielding only five bushels of corn, may con- 
tain enough food for plants to bring fifteen bushels — 
and its production will be raised to that mark, as soon 
as marling sets free its dormant powers. But a calca- 
reous soil reduced to a product of five bushels, can 
furnish food for no more, and nothing but an expensive 
application of putrescent manures, can render it worth 
the labour of cultivation. Thus it is, that soils, the 
improvement of which is most hopeless without calca- 
reous manures, will be the most certainly improved 
with profit by their use. [Appendix, H.] 



170 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES, 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE EXPENSE AND PROFIT OF MARLING. 

Proposition 5. Concluded. 

At this time there are but few persons among us 
who doubt the great benefit to be derived from the use 
of marl : and many of those who ten years ago deemed 
the practice the result of folly, and a fit subject for 
ridicule, now give that manure credit for virtues which 
it certainly does not possess, and from their manner 
of applying it, seem to believe it a universal cure for 
sterility. Such erroneous views have been a principal 
cause of the many injudicious and even injurious ap- 
plications of marl. It is as necessary to moderate the 
ill-founded expectations which many entertain, as to 
excite the too feeble hopes of others. 

The improvement caused by marling, and its per- 
manency, have been established beyond question. Sfill 
the improvement may be paid for too dearly — and the 
propriety of the practice must depend entirely on the 
amount of its clear profits, ascertained by fair estimates 
of the expenses incurred. 

With those who attempt any calculations of this 
kind, it is very common to set out on the mistaken 
ground that the expense of marling should bear some 
proportion to the selling price of the land : and with- 
out in the least underrating the effects of marl, they 
conclude that the improvement cannot justify an ex- 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 171 

pense of six dollars on an acre of land that would not 
previously sell for four dollars. Such a conclusion 
would be correct if the land was held as an article for 
sale, and intended to be disposed of as soon as pos- 
sible : as the expense in that case might not be returned 
in immediate profit, and certainly would not be added 
to the price of the land by the purchaser, under present 
circumstances. But if the land is held as a possession 
of any permanency, its previous price, or its subsequent 
valuation, has no bearing whatever on the amount which 
it may be profitable to expend for its improvement. 
Land that sells at four dollars, is often too dear at as 
many cents, because its product will not pay the ex- 
pense of cultivation. But if by laying out for the 
improvement ten dollars, or even one hundred dollars 
to the acre, the average increased annual profit would 
certainly and permanently be worth ten per cent, on 
that cost of improvement, then the expenditure would 
be highly expedient and profitable. We are so gene- 
rally influenced by a rage for extending our domain, 
that another farm is often bought, stocked and culti- 
vated, when a liberal estimate of its expected products, 
would not show an annual clear profit of three per 
cent. : and any one would mortgage his estate to buy 
another thousand acres, that was supposed fully ca- 
pable of yielding ten per cent, on its price. Yet the 
advantage would be precisely the same, if the prin- 
cipal money was used to enrich the land already in 
possession, (without regard to its extent, or previous 
value,) with equal assurance of its yielding the same 
amount of profit. 

Nothing is more general, or has had a worse influ- 
ence on the state of agriculture, than the desire to ex- 



172 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

tend our cultivation, and landed possessions. One of 
the consequences of this disposition, has been to give 
an artificial value to the poorest land, considered as 
merely so much territory, while various causes have 
concurred to depress the price of all good soils much 
below their real worth. Whatever a farm will sell 
for, fixes its value as merchandise j but by no means 
is it a fair measure of its value as permanent farming 
capital. 

The true value of land, and also of any permanent 
improvements to land, I would estimate in the follow- 
ing manner. Ascertain as nearly as possible the aver-, 
age clear and permanent income, and the land is worth 
as much money as would securely yield that amount 
of income, in the form of interest. For example, if a 
field brings ten dollars average value of crops to the 
acre, in every course of a four shift rotation, and the 
average expense of every kind necessary to carry on 
the cultivation, is also ten dollars — then the land yields 
nothing, 'and is worth nothing. If the average clear 
profit was two dollars and forty cents in the term, 
or only sixty cents a year, it would raise the value of 
the land to ten dollars — and if six dollars could be made 
annually, clear of all expense, it is equally certain that 
one hundred dollars would be the fair value of the acre. 
Yet if lands of precisely these rates of profit were of- 
fered for sale at this time, the poorest would probably 
sell for two dollars, and the richest for less than thirty 
dollars. In like manner, if any field that paid the ex- 
pense of cultivation before, has its average annual nett 
product increased six dollars for each acre, by some 
permanent improvement, the value thereby added to 
the field is one hundred dollars the acre, without 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 173 

regard to its former worth. Let the cost and value of 
marling be compared by this rule, and it will be found 
that the capital laid out in that mode of improvement 
will seldom return an annual interest of less than 
twenty per cent. — that it will more often equal forty 
— and sometimes reach even one hundred per cent, of 
annual and permanent interest on the investment. The 
application of this rule for the valuation of such im- 
provements, will raise them to such an amount, that 
the magnitude of the sum may be deemed a sufficient 
contradiction of my estimates. But before this mode 
of estimating values is rejected, merely on the sup- 
posed absurdity of an acid soil being considered as 
raised from one dollar to thirty dollars per acre, by a 
single marling, let it at least be examined, and its fal- 
lacy exposed. 

I admit the practical difficulty of applying this rule, 
however certain may be its theoretical truth. It is 
not possible to fix on the precise clear profit of any 
farm to its owner and cultivator ; and any error made 
in these premises, is increased sixteen fold in the 
amount of value founded on them. Still we may ap- 
proximate the truth with most certainty by using this 
guide. The early increase of crop from marling, will 
in most cases be an equal increase of clear profit, (for 
the subsequent improvement and the additional ofial 
will pay for the increase of labour,) — and it is not very 
difficult to fix a value for that actual increase of crop, 
and thereby to estimate the capital value of the im- 
provement. 

This mode of valuing land, under a difierent form, 
is universally received as correct in England. Culti- 
vation there is carried on almost entirely by tenants : 

P 2 



174 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES, 

and the annual rent which any farm brings on a long 
lease, fixes beyond question what is its annual clear 
profit to the owner. The price, or value of land, is 
generally estimated at so many '^years' purchase," 
which means as many years' rent as will return the 
purchaser's money. There, the interest of money 
being low, increases the value of land according to this 
mode of estimation ; and it is generally sold as high as 
twenty years' purchase. My estimate is less favour- 
able for raising the value of our lands, as it fixes them 
at sixteen and a half years' purchase. 

But an objector may ask, <' if any poor land is raised 
in value (according to this estimate) from one dollar 
to thirty by marling, would a purchaser make a judi- 
cious investment of his capital, by buying this im- 
proved land at thirty dollars?" — I would answer in 
the affirmative, if our view was confined to this par- 
ticular means of investing farming capital. The pur- 
chaser would get a clear interest of six per cent. — 
which is always a good return from land, and is twice 
as much as all Lower Virginia now yields. But if such 
a purchase is compared with other means of acquiring 
land so improved, it would be extremely injudicious 
— because thirty dollars expended in purchasing and 
marling such land, would serve both to acquire and 
improve five or six acres. 

Estimates of the expenses required for marling are 
commonly erected on as improper grounds, as those 
of its profits. We never calculate the cost of any old 
practice. We are content to clear woodland that after- 
wards will not pay for the expense of tillage — to keep 
under the plough, land reduced to five bushels of corn 
to the acre — to build and continue to repair miles of 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 175 

useless and perishable fences — to make farm-yard ma- 
nure (though not much of this fault,) and apply it to 
acid soils — without once calculating whether we lose 
or gain by any of these operations. But let any new 
practice be proposed, and every one begins to count 
its cost — and on such erroneous premises, that if ap- 
plied to every kind of farm labour, the estimate would 
prove that the most fertile land known, could scarcely 
defray its expenses. 

According to estimates made with much care and 
accuracy, the cost of an uncommonly expensive job of 
marling, four thousand and thirty-six bushels in quan- 
tity, in 1824, amounted to five dollars and thirty-five 
cents the acre, for five hundred and ninety-eight bushels 
of marl. This quantity was much too great : four hun- 
dred bushels would have been quite enough for safety 
and profit, and would have reduced the whole expense, 
including every necessary preparation, to three dollars 
and fifty-eight cents the acre. The earth which was 
taken off, to uncover the bed of marl, was considerably 
thicker than the marl itself. The road from the pit 
ascended hills amounting to forty feet of perpendicular 
elevation — and the average distance to the field was 
eight hundred and forty-seven yards. 

In 1828, I began to marl another tract of land, where 
the difficulties were less. The labour bestowed served 
to carry out and spread six thousand eight hundred and 
ninety-two tumbril loads, on one hundred and twenty 
acres of land, being an average of two hundred and 
fifty-nine bushels to the acre. The exhausted state of 
the soil made heavier dressing unsafe. The whole ex- 
pense of the operation, including all the preparatory 
labour, amounted to two dollars and eight cents for 



176 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

each acre marled — or ^y^ of a cent for each heaped 
bushel of marl. [Appendix. I.] 

It is impossible to carry on marling to advantage, 
or with any thing like economy, unless it is made a 
regular business, to be continued throughout the year, 
or a specified portion of it, by a labouring force de- 
voted to that purpose, and not allowed to be withdrawn 
for any other. Instead of proceeding on this plan, most 
persons who have begun to marl, attempted it in the 
short intervals of leisure, afforded between their differ- 
ent farming operations — and without lessening for this 
purpose, the extent of their usual cultivation. Let us 
suppose that preparations have been made, and on the 
first opportunity, a farmer commences marling with 
zeal and spirit. But every new labour is attended by 
causes of difficulty and delay, and a full share of these 
will be found in the first few days of marling. The 
road is soft for want of previous use, and if the least 
wet, soon becomes miry. The horses, unaccustomed 
to carting, balk at the hills, or only carry half loads. 
Other difficulties occur from the awkwardness of the 
labourers, and the inexperience of their master — and 
still more from the usual unwillingness of his overseer 
to devote any labour to improvements which are not 
expected to add to the crop of that year. Before mat- 
ters can get straight, the leisure time is at an end : the 
work is stopped, and the road and pit are left to get 
out of order, before making another attempt some six 
months after, when all the same vexatious difficulties 
are again to be encountered. 

If only a single horse was employed in drawing marl 
throughout the year, at the moderate allowance of two 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 177 

hundred working days, and one hundred bushels carried 
out for each, his year's work would amount to twenty 
thousand bushels, or enough for more than sixty acres. 
This alone would be a great object effected. But be- 
sides, this plan would allow the profitable employment 
of additional labour. When at any time, other teams 
and labourers could be spared to assist, though for only 
a few days, every thing is ready for them to go imme- 
diately to work. The pit is drained, the road is firm, 
and the field marked off* for the loads. In this way, 
much labour may be obtained in the course of the year, 
from teams that would otherwise be idle, and labour- 
ers .whose other employments would be of but little 
importance. The spreading of marl on the field, is a 
job that will always be ready to employ any spare la- 
bour : and throwing oft" the covering earth from an in- 
tended digging of marl, may be done, when rain, snow, 
or severe cold, have rendered the earth unfit for almost 
every other kind of labour. 

Another interesting question respecting the expense 
of this improvement, is, what distance from the pit 
may marl be profitably carried? If the amount of la- 
bour necessary to carry it half a mile is known, it is 
easy to calculate how much more will be required for 
two or three miles. The cost of teams and drivers is 
in proportion to the distance travelled — but the pit and 
field labour, is not afiected by that circumstance. At 
present, when so much poor land, abundantly supplied 
with fossil shells, may be bought at from two dollars 
to four dollars the acre, a farmer had better buy and 
marl a new farm, than to move marl even two miles 
to his land in possession. But this would be merely 



178 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

declining one considerable profit, for the purpose of 
taking another much greater. Whenever the value of 
marl is properly understood, and our lands are priced 
according to their improvements, or their capability 
of being improved from that source, as must be the 
case hereafter, then this choice of advantages will no 
longer be offered. Then rich marl will be profitably 
carted miles from the pits, and perhaps conveyed by 
water as far as it may be needed. A bushel of such 
marl as the bed on James River, described page 138, 
is as rich in calcareous earth alone as a bushel of slaked 
lime will be after it becomes carbonated — and the 
greater weight of the first, is a less disadvantage for 
water carriage, than the price of the latter. Farmers 
on James River who have used lime as manure to ^reat 
extent and advantage, might more cheaply have moved 
rich marl twenty miles by water, as it would cost 
nothing but the labour required to dig and move it. 
Either lime or good marl may hereafter be profitably 
distributed over a remote strip of poor land, by means 
of the rail road now constructing from Petersburg 
to the Roanoke : provided the proprietors do not imi- 
tate the over greedy policy of the legislature of Vir- 
ginia, in imposing tolls on manures passing through the 
James River canal. If there was no object whatever 
in view, but to draw the greatest possible income from 
tolls on canals and roads, true policy would direct that 
all manures should pass from town to country toll free. 
Every bushel of lime, marl, or gypsum, thus conveyed, 
would be the means of bringing back in future time, 
more than as much wheat or corn — and there would 
be an actual gain in tolls, besides the twenty fold great- 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 179 

er increase to the wealth of individuals and the state.* 
Wood ashes, after being deprived of their potash, have 
calcareous earth, and a smaller proportion of phos- 
phate of lime, as their only fertilizing ingredients ; and 
both together do not commonly make more, than there 
is of calcareous earth in the same bulk of good marl. 
Yet drawn ashes have been purchased largely from 
our soap factories, at four cents the bushel, and carried 
by sea to be sold for manure to the farmers of Long 
Island. Except for the proportion of phosphate of 
lime which they contain, drawn ashes are simply arti- 
ficial marl — more fit for immediate action, by being 
finely divided, but weaker than our best beds of fossil 
shells. 

The argument in support of the several propositions 
which have been discussed through so many chapters, 
is now concluded. However unskilfully, I flatter my- 

* since writing the above passage, several new schemes for rail 
roads in Lower Virginia have been brought forward, and strongly 
advocated. Among them are proposed rail roads from Richmond 
to Yorktown, and from Richmond to Westover. It is not my inten- 
tion to offer an opinion on the advantages or disadvantages of any 
of these plans. But should either be constructed, I will venture to 
prophecy that an immense amount of transportation of rich marl, 
and lime, will take place, provided that the expense shall not ex- 
ceed that on canals navigated toll free. The hne for either of these 
routes must necessarily be located on poor ridge land, now perfect- 
ly worthless, but of the kind most susceptible of being highly im- 
proved by marhng. The lower end of both these lines, but particu- 
larly that to Yorktown, is convenient to marl of the best quality. 
Whenever from twenty to forty square miles of this barren land 
shall produce thirty bushels of corn to the acre, it will cause a great 
increase of profit to the road, and form no contemptible addition to 
the trade of Richmond. 



180 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

self that it has been effectually used ; and that the ge- 
neral deficiency in our soils of calcareous earths — the 
necessity of supplying it — the profit by that means 
to be derived — and the high importance of all these 
considerations — have been established too firmly to be 
shaken by either arguments or facts. 



h 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 181 



CHAPTER XVII. 

DIRECTIONS FOR DIGGING AND CARTING MARL. 

The great deposit of fossil shells, which custom has 
miscalled marl, is in many places exposed to view, in 
most of the lands that border on our tide-waters, and 
on many of their small tributary streams. Formerly, 
it was supposed to be limited to such situations : but 
since its value as a manure has caused it to be more 
noticed, and sought after, marl has been found in many 
other places. It is often discovered by the digging of 
wells, but lying so deep, that its value must be more 
highly estimated than at present, before it will be dug 
for manure. From all the scattered evidences of the 
presence of this deposit, it may be inferred, that it lies 
beneath nearly every part of our country between the 
sea and the granite ridge which forms the falls of all 
our rivers. It is exposed, where it rises, and where 
cut through by the deep ravines of hilly land, and the 
courses of rivers — and concealed by its dips, and the 
usual level surface of the country. The rich tracts of 
neutral soil on James River, such as Shirly, Westover, 
Brandon, and Sandy Point, seem to have been formed 
by alluvion, which may be termed recent, compared 
to that of our district in general : and in these, no marl 
has been found, though it is generally abundant in the 
adjacent higher lands. Fresh-water muscle shells are 
sometimes found in thin layers (from a few inches to 
Q 



182 ON CALCAREOtrS MANURES. 

two feet thick) both on those lands, and others — hut 
generally near the surface, and always far above the 
deposit of sea shells, found under the high land. These 
two layers of different kinds of shells are separated by 
a thickness of many feet of earth, containing no shells 
of any kind. From these appearances, it would seem 
that this tract of country was, for ages, the bottom of 
the sea — then covered by earth — then the bottom of 
a fresh-water lake — and finally made dry land. Muscle 
shells are richer than the others, as they contain much 
gelatinous and enriching animal matter. On this ac- 
count, the earth with which muscle shells are found 
mixed, is a rich black mould — while that mixed with 
fossil sea shells, is quite barren. Most persons con- 
sider these beds of muscle shells as artificially formed 
by the Indians, who are supposed to have collected 
the muscles, for food, and left the shells, where the 
fish were consumed. But besides several other reasons 
for opposing this opinion, it is sufficient to examine 
the shells as they now^ lie in layers in the earth, to be 
satisfied, that they must have been in water, when de- 
posited in their present situation. 

More than forty kinds of sea shells are found in the 
beds of marl that I have worked. Generally the shells 
are whole, but are much broken by digging, and the 
after operations. The white shells are rapidly reduced, 
after being mixed with an acid soil — but some grey 
kinds, as scallop, and a variety of oyster, are so hard 
as to be very long before they can act as manure. 
Some beds, and they are generally the richest, have 
scarcely any whole shells, but are formed principally 
of small broken fragments. Of course the value of 
marl as a manure depends in some measure on what 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 183 

kinds of shells are most numerous, and their state of 
division, as well as upon the total amount of the calca- 
reous earth contained. The last is however by far the 
most important criterion of its value. The most ex- 
perienced eye may be much deceived in the strength 
of marl, and still more gross and dangerous errors 
would be made by an inexperienced marler. The 
strength of a body of marl often changes materially in 
sinking a foot in depth — although the same changes 
may be expected to occur very regularly, in every pit 
sunk through the same bed. Whoever uses marl, ought 
to know how to analyze it, which a little care will 
enable any one to do with sufficient accuracy, by 
either of the two methods described in the 5th chapter. 
But the analysis of marl (that is, merely ascertaining 
its proportion of calcareous earth) by the pneumatic 
apparatus, is by far the most accurate, expeditious, and 
even cheapest method, if many and frequent trials are 
desired. 

Our beds of marl are either of a blue, or a yellowish 
colour. The colour of the first seems to have some 
connexion with the presence of water, as this kind 
is always kept wet, by water slowly oozing through 
it. The yellow marl is sometimes wet, but more gene- 
rally dry, and therefore easier to work. Unless very 
poor, all marls are sufficiently firm and solid for the 
sides of the pit to stand, when dug perpendicularly. 

Where abed of marl is dry and not covered by much 
earth, no directions are required for the pit work — 
except it be, that the pit should be long enough to al- 
low the carts to descend to the bottom (when finished) 
and to rise out on a slope sufficiently gradual. This 
will prevent the necessity of twice handling the marl, 



184 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

by first throwing it out of the pit, and then into the 
carts, which must be done, if the pit is made too short, 
or its ends too steep, for the loads to be drawn out. 
No machine or contrivance will raise marl from the 
bottom of a pit, or a valley, so well as a horse-cart — 
and no pains will be lost, in enlarging the pit, and 
graduating the ascent out of it to attain that object. 

As marl usually shows on a hill-side, but little 
earth has to be moved to uncover the first pit. But 
the next, and each successive cover of earth, will be 
more thick, until it may be necessary to abandon that 
place and begin again elsewhere. But the quantity of 
covering earth need not be regarded as a serious ob- 
stacle, if it is not thicker than the marl below it. 
While that is the case, one pit completed will receive 
all the earth thrown from an equal space, for com- 
mencing another. When this proportion of earth is 
exceeded, it is necessary to carry it farther, by either 
carts or scrapers, and the labour is greatly increased. 
For any extensive operation, it is much cheaper to 
take ofi* a cover of earth, twelve feet thick, to obtain 
marl of equal depth, than if both the covering earth 
and marl were only three feet each. Whether the 
cover be thick or thin, two parts of the operation are 
equally troublesome, viz. to take ofi' the mat of roots, 
and perhaps some large trees on the surface soil, and 
to clean off the surface of the marl, which is sometimes 
very irregular. The greater part of the thickest cover 
would be much easier to work. But the most im- 
portant advantage in taking off* earth of ten or more 
feet in thickness, is saving digging, by causing the 
earth to come down by its own weight. If time can 
be allowed to aid this operation, the driest earth will 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 185 

mostly fall, by being repeatedly undermined a little. 
But this is greatly facilitated by the oozing water, 
which generally fills the earth lying immediately on 
beds of wet marl. In uncovering a bed of this descrip- 
tion, where the marl was to be dug fourteen feet, and 
ten to twelve feet of earth to remove, my labour was 
made ten-fold heavier, by digging altogether. The 
surface bore living trees, and was full of roots — there 
was enough stone to keep the edges of the grubbing 
hoes battered — and small springs and oozing water 
came out every where, after digging a few feet deep. 
A considerable part of the earth was a tough, sticky 
clay, kept wet throughout, and which it was equally 
difficult to get on the shovels, and to get rid of. Some 
years after, another pit was uncovered on the same 
bed, and under like circumstances, except that the 
time was the last of summer, and there was less water 
oozing through the earth. This digging was begun 
at the lowest part of the earth, which was a layer of 
sand, kept quite wet by the water oozing through it. 
With gravel shovels, this was easily cut under from 
one to two feet along the whole length of the old pit 
— and as fast as was desirable, the upper earth, thus 
undermined, fell, into the old pit at first, and after- 
wards, when that did not take place of itself, the fallen 
earth was easily thrown there by shovels. As the 
earth fell separated into small but compact masses, it 
was not much afiected by the water, even when it re- 
mained through the night, before being shoveled away. 
No digging was required, except this continued shovel- 
ing out the lowest sand stratum, and whether clay, or 
stones, or roots, w^ere mixed with the falling earth, 
they were easy to throw ofi*. The numerous roots 

Q 2 



186 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

which were so troublesome in the former operation^ 
were now an advantage, as they supported the earth 
sufficiently to let it fall only gradually and safely ; and 
before the roots fell, they were almost clear of earth. 
The whole body of earth, with all its difficulties, was 
moved off as easily as the driest could have been by 
digging altogether. 

In working a pit of wet marl, no pains should be 
spared to drain it as effectually as possible. Very few 
beds are penetrated by veins of running water, which 
would deserve the name of springs — but water oozes 
very slowly through every part of wet marl, and bold 
springs often burst out immediately over its surface. 
After the form of the pit, and situation of the road are 
determined, a ditch to receive and draw off all the 
water, should be commenced down the valley, as low 
as the bottom of the pit is expected to be, and opened 
up to the work, deepening as it extends, so as to keep 
the bottom of the ditch on the same level with the 
bottom of the marl. It may be cheaper, and will serve 
as well, to deepen this ditch as the deepening of the 
pit proceeds. After the marl is uncovered the full 
size intended for the pit, (which ought to be large 
enough for carts to turn about on,) a little drain of four 
or five inches wide, and as many deep, or the size made 
by the grubbing hoe used to cut it, should be carried 
all around to intercept the surface or spring water and 
conduct it to the main drain. The marl will now be 
dry enough for the carts to be brought on and loaded. 
But as the digging proceeds, oozing water will collect 
slowly, and aided by the wheels of loaded carts, the 
surface of the firmest marl would soon be rendered a 
puddle, and then a quagmire. This may easily be pre- 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 187 

vented by the inclination of the surface. The first 
course dug off, should be much the deepest next the 
surface drain, (leaving a margin of a few inches of 
finer marl, as a bank to keep in the stream) so that the 
digging shall be the lowest around the outside, and 
gradually rise to the middle of the area. Whatever 
\vater may find its way within the work, whether 
from oozing, rain, or accidental burstings of the little 
surface drain, will run to the outside,- the dip of which 
should lead to the lower main drain. After this form 
is given to the surface of the area, very little attention 
is required to preserve it — for if the successive courses 
are dug of equal depth from side to side, the previous 
dip will not be altered. The sides or walls of the pit 
should be cut something without the perpendicular, so 
that the pit is made one or two feet wider at bottom 
than top. The usual firm texture will prevent any 
danger from this overhanging shape, and several ad- 
vantages will be gained from it. It gives more space 
for work — prevents the wheels running on the lowest 
and wettest parts — allows more earth to be disposed of, 
in opening for the next pit — and prevents that earth 
tumbling into the next digging, when the separating 
wall of marl is cut away. The upper drain of the pit, 
which takes the surface water, will hang over the one 
below, kept for the oozing water. The first remains 
unaltered throughout the job, and may still convey 
the stream, when six feet above the heads of the la- 
bourers in the pit. The lower drain of course sinks 
with the digging. Should the pit be dug deeper than 
the level of the receiving ditch can be sunk, a wall 
should be left between, and the remainder of the oozing 
water must be conducted to a little basin near the wall, 



188 ON CALCAREOrS MANURES. 

and thence baled or pumped into the receiving ditch. 
The passage for the carts to ascend from the pit should 
be kept on a suitable slope — and the marl forming that 
slope may be cut out in small pits, after the balance 
has been completed. 

If the marl is so situated that carts cannot be driven 
as low as the bottom, then the area must be cut out in 
small pits, beginning at the back part, and extending 
as they proceed, towards the road leading out of the pit. 

On high and broken land, marl is generally found 
at the bottom of ravines, and separated from the field 
where it is to be carried, by a high and steep hill-side. 
The difficulty of cutting roads in such situations, is 
much less than any inexperienced person would sup- 
pose. We cannot get rid of any of the actual eleva- 
tion — but the ascent may be made as gradual as is de- 
sired, by a proper location of the road. The intended 
course must be laid off by the eye, and the upper side 
of the road marked. If it passes through woods, it will 
be necessary to use grubbing hoes for the digging. With 
these, begin at the distance of four or five feet below 
the marked line, and dig horizontally onward to it. 
That earth is to be pulled back with broad hoes, and 
laid over a width of three or four feet below the place 
from which it was taken. Thus the upper side of the 
road is formed by cutting down, and the lower side 
by filling up, with the 

earth taken from above. .(^ 

After shaping the road 
roughly, the deficien- 
cies will be seen and 
may be corrected in 
the finishing work, by 
deepening some places 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 189 

and filling up others, so as to graduate the whole pro- 
perly. A width of eight or nine feet of firm road, 
will be sufficient for carting marl. If the land through 
which the road is to be cut is not very steep, and is 
free from trees and roots, the operation may be made 
much cheaper by using the plough. The first furrow 
should be run along the line of the lower side of the 
intended road, and turned down hill : the plough then 
returns empty, to carry a second furrow by the first. 
In this manner it proceeds — cutting deeply, and throw- 
ing the slices far, (both of which is easily done on a 
hill-side,) until rather more than the required widtli 
is ploughed. The ploughman then begins again over 
his first furrow, and ploughs the whole over as at first 
— and this course is repeated perhaps once or twice 
more, until enough earth is cut from the upper and 
put on the lower side of the road. After the first 
ploughing, eight or ten broad hoes should aid and com- 
plete the work, by pulling down the earth from the 
high to the low side, and particularly in those places 
where the hill-side is steepest. After the proper shape 
is given, carts at first empty, and then with light loads, 
should be driven over every part of the surface of the 
road, until it is firm. If a heavy rain should fall be- 
fore it has been thus trodden, the road would be ren- 
dered useless for a considerable time. 

Tumbril carts drawn by a single horse or mule, are 
most convenient for conveying marl short distances. 
Every part of the cart should be light, and the body 
should be so small as only to hold the load it is intend- 
ed to carry, without a tail-board. This plan enables 
the drivers to measure every load, which advantage 
will be found on trial much more important than would 



190 ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 

at first be supposed. If carts of common size are used, 
the careless labourers will generally load too lightly — 
yet sometimes will injure the horse by putting in a 
load much too heavy. The small-sized cart-bodies pre- 
vent both these faults. The load cannot be made much 
too heavy — and if too light, the farmer can detect it 
at a glance. Where there is a hill to ascend, five heap- 
ed bushels of wet marl is a sufficient load for a horse. 
If the marl is dry, or the road level, six bushels may 
be put in the same carts, by using tail-boards. 

Strong labourers are required in the pit for digging 
and loading: but boys who are too small for any other 
regular farm labour, are sufficient to drive the carts. 
Horses or mules kept at this work soon become so 
tractable, that very little strength or skill is required 
to drive them. 

All these hints and expedients, or perhaps better 
plans, would occur to most persons before they are 
long engaged in marling. Still these directions may 
help to smooth the obstructions in the way of the in- 
experienced — and they will not be entirely useless, 
if they serve to prevent even small losses of time and 
labour. 

My task is at last completed. Whether I shall be 
able to persuade my countrymen to prize the treasures, 
and seize the profits wiiich are within their reach, or 
whether my testimony and arguments shall be fruit- 
less, soon or late, a time must arrive when my expec- 
tations will be realized. The use of calcareous ma- 
nures is destined to change a large portion of the soil 
of Lower Virginia from barrenness to fertility — which, 
added to the advantages we already possess — our na* 
vigable waters and convenient markets, the facility of 



ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. 191 

tilling our lands, and the choice of crops offered by 
our climate — will all concur to increase ten-fold the 
present value of our land, and produce more farming 
profit than has been found elsewhere on soils far more 
favoured by nature. Population, wealth, and learn- 
ing, will keep pace with the improvement of the soil 
— and we, or our children, will have reason to rejoice, 
not only as farmers, but as Virginians, and as patriots. 



THE END. 



APPENDIX. 



[A. Page 15.] 

Different significations of calcareous earth. 

The definition of calcareous earth, which confines 
that term to the carbonate of lime, is certainly liable 
to objections, but less so than any other mode of ar- 
rangement. It may at first seem absurd to consider 
as one of the three earths which compose soils, one 
only of the many combinations of lime, rather than 
either pure lime alone, or lime in all its combinations. 
One or the other of these significations is adopted by 
the highest authorities, when the calcareous ingredients 
of soils are described — and in either sense, the use of 
this term is more conformable with scientific arrange- 
ment, than mine. Yet much inconvenience is caused 
by thus applying the term calcareous earth. If applied 
to lime, it is to a substance which is never found ex- 
isting naturally, and which will always be considered 
by most persons as the product of the artificial process 
of calcination, and as having no more part in the com- 
position of natural soils, than the manures obtained 
from oil-cake, or pounded bones. It is equally im- 
proper to include under the same general term the 
combinations of lime, with all the fifty or sixty various 
acids. Two of these, the sulphate, and the phosphate 
of lime, are known as valuable manures \ but they exist 
R 



194 APPENDIX. 

naturally in soils in such minute quantities, and so 
rarely, as not to deserve to be considered as important 
ingredients. A subsequent part of this essay will show 
why the oxalate of lime is also supposed to be highly 
valuable as a manure, and far more abundant. Many 
other salts of lime are known to chemists : but their 
several qualities, as affecting soils, are entirely unknown 
— and their quantities are too small, and their presence 
too rare, to require consideration. If all these different 
combinations of lime, with various and unknown pro- 
perties, had not been excluded by my definition of cal- 
careous earth, continual exceptions would have been 
necessary, to avoid stating what was not meant. The 
carbonate of lime, to which 1 have confined that term, 
though only one of many existing combinations, yet 
in quantity and in importance, as an ingredient of soils, 
as well as of the known portion of the globe, very far 
exceeds all the others. 

But even if calcareous earth, as defined and limited, 
is admitted to be the substance which it is proper to 
consider as one of the three earths of agriculture, still 
there are objections to its name, which I would gladly 
avoid. However strictly defined, many readers will 
attach to terms such meanings as they had previously 
understood : and the word calcareous has been so loose- 
ly, and so differently applied in common language and 
in agriculture, that much confusion may attend its 
use. Any thing ^^ partaking of the nature of lime" is 
*' calcareous," according to Walker's Dictionary : Lord 
Karnes limits the term to pure lime^ — Davyt and Sin- 

• Gentleman Farmer, page 264, (2d Edin. Ed.) 
fAgr. Chem. page 223, (Phil. Ed. of 1821.) 



APPENDIX. 195 

clair,* include under it pure lime and all its combina- 
tions — and Kir wan, t Rozier,J and Young,§ whose ex- 
ample I have followed, confine the name calcareous 
earth to the carbonate of lime. Nor can any other 
term be substituted without producing other difficulties. 
Carbonate of lime would be precise, and it means ex- 
actly the same chemical substance : but there are insu- 
perable objections to the frequent use of chemical names 
in a work addressed to ordinary readers. Chalk, or 
shells, or mild lime, (or what had been quicklime, but 
which from exposure to the air, had again become car- 
bonated,) all these are the same chemical substance — 
but none of these names would serve, because each 
would be supposed to mean such certain form or ap- 
pearance of calcareous earth, as they usually express. 
If I could hope to revive an obsolete term, and with 
some modification establish its use for this purpose, I 
would call this earth calx, and from it derive calxing, 
to signify the application of calcareous earth, in any 
form, as manure. A general and definite term for this 
operation is much wanting. Liming, marling, apply- 
ing drawn ashes, or the rubbish of old buildings, chalk, 
or limestone gravel — all these operations are in part, 
and some of them entirely, that manuring that I would 
thus call calxing. But because their names are dif- 
ferent, so are their effects generally considered — not 
only in those respects where differences really exist, 
but in those where they are precisely alike. 

* Code of Agricukure, page 134, (Hartford Ed. 1818.) 
f Kirwan on Manures, Chap. 1. 
t-" Terres" — Cours Complet d' Agriculture Pratique. 
§ Essay on Manures, Chap. 3. 



196 AT^PENDTV. 



[B. Page 20.] 

The names usually given to soils often incorrect. 

Nothing is more wanting in the science of agricul- 
ture, than ft correct nomenclature of soils, by which 
the characters might be learned from the names — and 
nothing has hitherto seemed less attainable. The 
modes of classing and naming soils, used by scientific 
autliors, are not only different, and opposed to each 
other — but each one of them is quite unfit to serve the 
purpose intended. As to the crowd of inferior writers, 
it is enough to say that their terms are not fixed by 
any rule — convey no precise meaning, and are worth 
not much more than those in common use among our- 
selves, and other practical cultivators, which often 
vary in their meaning within forty miles of distance. 
To enable us to judge of the fitness of the names given 
to soils by others, let us examine those applied by our- 
selves. We generally describe soils by making a men- 
tal comparison with those we are most accustomed to 
— and though such a description is understood well 
enough through a particular district, it may have quite 
a different meaning elsewhere. What are called clay 
or stiff soils in Sussex and Southampton, would be 
considered sandy or light soils in Goochland — merely 
because almost every acre of land in the former coun- 
ties is sandy, and in the latter, clays are nearly as 
abundant. 

The conflict of definitions, and consequent confusion 
in terms, cannot be more plainly set forth; than by 



APPENDIX. 197 

quoting from some of the highest authorities, the vari- 
ous and contradictory explanations of a term so com- 
mon that it is used by every one who writes or speaks 
of soils. 

'^ Loam denotes any soil moderately cohesive, and 
^^more so than loose chalk. By the author of the 
^^Body of Agriculture, it is said to be a clay mixed 
^'with sandP \Kirwan on Manures — Chap. 1.] 

^' Loam, or that species of artificial soil, into 
*' which the others are generally brought by the course 
^^ of long cultivation." — << Where a soil is moderately 
*' cohesive, less tenacious than clay, and more so than 
^^sand, it is known by the name of loam. From its 
<* frequency, there is reason to suppose that in some 
<< cases it might be called an original soil. ''^ \Sinclair^s 
Code of Jlgriculture — Chap. 1.] 

<^The word loam should be limited to soils contain- 
^< ing at least one-third of impalpable earthy matter, 
" copiously effervescing ivith acids. '^ [Davy's Jigri- 
cultural Chemistry — Lecture 4.] 

*<By loam is meant any of the earths combined 
<< with decayed animal or vegetable matter.''^ Sj^P- 
pendix to Jlgr. Chem, by George Sinclair. ^^ 

" luOdjn—fat unctuous earth — marV^ [Johnson^s 
Dictionary, 8vo. Ed., and also Walker' s.'\ 

^f Loam may be considered a clay of loose or friable 
^* consistency, mixed with mica or isinglass, and iron 
''ochre.'' {^Editor of %fimerican Farmer ^ Vol. 3. 
page 320.] 



r2 



198 APPENDIX. 



[C. Page 28.] 

Some effects of slavery on agricultural profits. 

The cultivators of Lower Virginia derive a portion 
of their income from a source distinct from tillage — 
and which, though it often forces them to persist in 
their profitless farming, yet also conceals, and mitigates 
its consequences. This source of income is the breed- 
ing and selling of slaves. I do not mean to charge any 
person with intentionally carrying on a regular busi- 
ness of this kind : but whether we wish it or not, from 
the nature of existing circumstances, we all are acting 
some part in aid of a general system, which taken al- 
together, is precisely what I have named. No man 
is so inhuman as to breed and raise slaves, to sell off a 
certain proportion regularly, as a western drover does 
with his herds of cattle. Bat sooner or later the gene- 
ral result is the same. Sales may be made voluntarily, 
or by the sherifi* — they may be met by the first owner, 
or delayed until the succession of his heirs — or the 
misfortune of being sold may fall on one parcel of 
slaves, instead of another : but all these are but difier- 
ent ways of arriving at the same general and inevita- 
ble result. With plenty of wholesome, though coarse 
food, and under such mild treatment as our slaves usu- 
ally experience, they have every inducement and fa- 
cility to increase their numbers with all possible rapi- 
dity, without any opposing check, either prudential, 
moral, or physical. These several checks to the in- 
crease of population operate more or less on all free 



APPENDIX. 199 

persons, whether rich or poor — and slaves, situated 
as ours are, perhaps are placed in the only possible 
circumstances, in which no restraint whatever prevents 
the propagation and increase of the race. From the 
general existence of this state of circumstances, the 
particular effects may be naturally deduced : and facts 
completely accord with what those circumstances pro- 
mise. A gang of slaves on a farm will often increase 
to four times their original number, in less than forty 
years. If a farmer is only able to feed and maintain 
his slaves, their increase in value may double the whole 
of his capital originally vested in farming, before he 
closes the term of an ordinary life. But few farms are 
able to support this increasing demand, and furnish 
the necessary supplies to the family of the owner — 
whence very many owners of large estates in lands and 
negroes, are throughout their lives too poor to enjoy 
the comforts of wealth, or to encounter the expenses 
necessary to improve their unprofitable farming. A 
man so situated, may be said to be a slave to those, 
whom the law has made slaves to himself. If the slave 
owner is industrious and frugal, he may be able to sup- 
port the increasing number of his slaves, and to be- 
queath them undiminished to his children. But the 
income of few persons increases as fast as their slaves 
— and if not, the consequence must be, that some of 
them will be sold, that the others may be supported ; 
and the sale of more is perhaps afterwards compelled, 
to pay debts incurred in striving to put off that dread- 
ed alternative. The slave first almost starves his mas- 
ter, and at last, is eaten by him — at least he is ex- 
changed for his value in food. The sale of slaves is 
always a severe trial to their owner j obstacles are op- 



200 APPENDIX. 

posed to it, not only sentiments of humanity, and of 
regard for those who have passed their lives in his 
service — but every feeling he has of false shame comes 
to aid — and such sales are generally postponed, until 
compelled by creditors, and are carried into effect by 
the sheriff, or by the administrator of the debtor. And 
when the sale finally takes place, its magnitude makes 
up for all previous delays. Do what we will, the sur- 
plus slaves must be sent out of a country which is not 
able to feed them : and these causes continue to supply 
the immense numbers that are annually sold and car- 
ried away from Lower Virginia, without producing 
the political benefit, of lessening the actual number 
remaining. Nothing can check this forced emigration 
of blacks, and the voluntary emigration of whites, ex- 
cept increased production of food, obtained by enrich- 
ing our lands, and the consequent increase of farming 
profits. No effect will more certainly follow its cause 
than this — that whenever our land is so improved as 
to produce double its present supply of food, it will 
also have, and will retain, double its present amount 
of population. The improving farmer who adds one 
hundred bushels of corn to the previous product of his 
country, effectually adds also to its population, as many 
persons as his increase of product will feed. 

[D. Page 48.] 

Opinions that soils are generally calcareous. 

I have asserted that the inference to be drawn from 
all the descriptions of soils, in the most esteemed trea- 



APPENDIX. 201 

tises on agriculture, is that calcareous earth is a very 
general, if not a universal ingredient. This assertion 
can be proved beyond all doubt, from European au- 
thors : but it would require many and long extracts, 
too bulky to include here, and which cannot be fairly 
abridged, or exhibited by a few examples. No author 
says directly that calcareous earth is present in all 
soils — but its being always named as one of the ingre- 
dients of soils in general, and no cases of its absolute 
deficiency being directly stated, amount to the decla- 
ration that calcareous earth is very rarely, if ever, en- 
tirely wanting in any soil. We may find enough di- 
rections to apply calcareous manures to soils that are 
deficient in that ingredient : but that deficiency, seems 
to be not spoken of as absolute^ but relative to other 
soils more abundantly supplied. In the same manner, 
they direct clay, or sand, to be used as manure for 
soils very deficient in one or the other of those earths 
— but without meaning that any soil under cultivation 
can be found entirely destitute of sand, or of clay. 
My p.roofs from general treatises, would therefore be 
generally indirect — and the quotations necessary to 
exhibit them, would show what had not been said, 
rather than what had — that they did not assert the 
absence of calcareous earth, instead of directly assert- 
ing its universal presence. Extracts for this purpose, 
however satisfactory, would necessarily be too volu- 
minous, and it is well that they can be dispensed with. 
Better proof, because it is direct, and more concise^ 
will be furnished by quoting the opinions of a few 
agriculturists of our own country, who are extensively 
acquainted with European authors, and have evidently 
drawn their opinions from those sources. These quo» 



202 APPENDIX. 

tations will not only show conclusively, that their 
authors consider the received European doctrine to be 
that all soils are more or less calcareous — but also, 
that they apply the same general character to the soils 
of the United States, without expressing a doubt, or 
naming an exception. 

1st. From a "Treatise on Agriculture," (ascribed 
to General Armstrong,) published in the American 
Farmer, [T^ol. 1. — page 153.] 

'' Of six or eight substances, which chymists have 
«' denominated earths, four are widely and abundant- 
'* ly diffused, and form the crust of our globe. These 
''are silica, alumina, lime, and magnesia." — "In a 
''pure or isolated state, these earths are wholly un- 
'' productive ; but when decomposed and mixed, and 
'' to this mixture is added the residuum of dead animal 
''or vegetable matter, they become fertile, and take 
" the general name of soils, and are again denominated, 
"after the earth that most abounds in their composi- 
" tion respectively. — " 

2. Address of R. H. Rose to the Agricultural So- 
ciety of Susquehanna, [..^m. Far. Vol. 3. p. 101.] 

" Geologists suppose our earth to have been masses 
"of rock of various kinds, but principally silicious, 
"aluminous, calcareous, and magnesian — from the gra- 
"dual attrition, decay, and niixtu7'e of which, toge- 
"ther with an addition of vegetable and animal mat- 
"ter, is formed the soil ; and this is called sandy, clay- 
"ey, calcareous, or magnesian, according as the par- 
"'ticular primitive material, preponderates in its for- 
"mation." 

3. Address of Robert Smith to the Maryland 
Agricultural Society. [Jim. Far. Vol. 3. p. 228.] 



APPENDIX. 203 

" The soils of our country are in general clay, 

*<sand, gravel, clayey loam, sandy loam, and gravelly 
"loam. Clay, sand, and gravel, need no description, 
"&:c." — " Clayey loam is a compound soil, consisting 
"of clay, and sand or gravel, with a mixture of cal- 
^' careous matter, and in which clay is predominant 
" — Sandy ^ or gravelly loam, is a compound soil, 
"consisting of sand or gravel, and clay, with a mix- 
"ture of calcareous matter, and in which sand or 
"gravel is predominant.'^ 

The two first extracts merely state the geological 
theory of the formation of soils, which is received as 
correct by the most eminent agriculturists of Europe. 
How far it may be supported or opposed by the actual 
constitution, and number of ingredients, of European 
soils, is not for me to decide on, nor is the considera- 
tion necessary to my subject. But the adoption of this 
general theory, by American writers, without except- 
ing American soils, is an indirect, but complete appli- 
cation to them, of the same character and composition. 
The writer last quoted, states positively that the vari- 
ous loams, (which comprise at least nineteen twentieths 
of our soils, and I presume also of the soils of Mary- 
land,) contain calcareous matter. The expression of 
this opinion by Mr. Smith, is sufficient to prove that 
such was the fair and plain deduction from his general 
reading on agriculture, from which source only could 
his opinions have been derived. If the soils of Mary- 
land are not very unlike those of Virginia, I will ven- 
ture to assert, that not one hundredth part of all the 
clayey, sandy, and gravelly loams, contains the small- 
est proportion of carbonate of lime — and that not a 
single specimen of calcareous soil can be found, be- 



204 APPENDIX. 

tween the falls of the rivers, and the most eastern 
body of limestone. 

But though the direct testimony of European au- 
thors, (as cited in the essay,) concurs with the indirect 
proofs referred to in this note, to induce the belief that 
soils are very rarely destitute of calcareous earth, yet 
statements may be found of some particular soils, being 
considered of that character. These statements, even 
if presented by the authors of general treatises, would 
only seem to present exceptions to their general rule 
of the almost universal diffusion of calcareous earth in 
soil. But so far as I know, no such exceptions are 
named in the description of soils in any general treatise, 
and therefore have not the slightest effect in contra- 
dicting or modifying their testimony on this subject. 
It is in the description of soils of particular farms, or 
districts, that some such statements are made : and if 
no such examples had been mentioned, they would not 
have been needed to prove the existence in Europe of 
soils like most of ours, destitute of calcareous earth. 
These facts do not oppose my argument. I have not 
asserted, (nor believed, since I have endeavoured to 
investigate this subject,) that there were not soils, and 
perhaps many extensive districts, containing no calca- 
reous earth. My argument merely maintains that these 
facts would not be inferred, but the contrary, by any 
general and cursory reader of the agricultural treatises 
of Europe, that we are best acquainted with. It has 
not been my purpose to inquire as to the existence, or 
the extent of soils of this kind in Europe. But judging 
from the indirect testimony furnished by accounts of 
the minerals, and vegetable productions in general de- 
scriptions of different countries, I would suppose that. 



APPENDIX. 205 



soils having no calcareous earth were often found in 
Scotland and the northern part of Germany, and that 
they were comparatively rare, in England and France. 



[E. Page 91.] 

Calcareous earth a preserver of putrescent animal 

matter. 

My experiment of the putrefaction of animal matter 
in contact with calcareous earth, was commenced with 
a view to results different from what were obtained, as 
stated in the essay. Darwin says that nitrous acid is 
produced in the process of putrefaction, and he sup- 
poses the nitrate of lime to be very serviceable to vege- 
tation. \^Phytologia, p. 2\0 and 224c, *^m. Ed.^ As 
the nitrous acid is a gas, it must pass off into the air, 
under ordinary circumstances, as fast as it is formed, 
and be entirely lost. But as it is strongly attracted by 
lime, a cover of calcareous earth ought to arrest it, and 
form a new combination, which, if not precisely ni- 
trate of lime, would at least be composed of the same 
elements, though in different proportions. To ascer- 
tain whether any such combination had taken place, 
when the manure was used, I took a handful of the 
calcareous earth, which had been in immediate contact 
with the carcass, and threw it into a glass of hot water. 
After remaining half an hour, the fluid was poured off, 
filtered and evaporated, and left a considerable pro- 
portion of a white soluble salt (supposed eight or ten 
grains. ) I could not ascertain its kind — but it was not 
deliquescent, and therefore could not have been the 
S 



306 APPENDIX. 

nitrate of lime. The spot on which the carcass laid, 
was so strongly impregnated by this salt, that it re- 
mained bare of vegetation for several years. 

But whatever were the products of fermentation 
saved by this experiment, it was sufficiently evident 
that little or nothing was lost ; as every thing is, when 
flesh putrefies in the open air. And I presume that a 
cover of a few inches, or even a few feet, of aluminous 
or silicious earth, or both, would have very little efiecty 
in preserving any aeriform products of putrefaction. 
Whenever the carcasses of animals, or any other animal 
substances subject to rapid and wasteful fermentation, 
can be obtained in great quantity, their enriching pow- 
er might be all secured by depositing them between 
layers of fossil shells, or any other form of calcareous 
earth. I have understood that on the borders of the 
Chowan, immense quantities of herrings are often used 
as manure, as purchasers cannot always take off the 
myriads with which they are supplied. A herring is 
buried under every corn-hill, and fine crops are thus 
made, as far as this singular mode of manuring can be 
extended. But whatever benefits may be thus derived, 
the sense of smelling, as well as the known chemical 
process of putrefaction, make it certain that nine tenths 
of all this rich manure must be wasted in the air. If 
those who fortunately possess this supply of animal ma- 
nure, would let the fermentation take place and be com- 
pleted, mixed with and enclosed by calcareous earth, in 
pits of suitable size, they would increase prodigiously, 
both the amount and the permanency of their acting 
animal manure, besides obtaining the benefit of the 
calcareous manure mixed with it. This opinion is 
principally founded on theory, or upon the received 



APPENDIX. 207 

opinions of the chemical properties and affinities of the 
different substances and their products. My farm, like 
most others, furnishes no considerable or regular sup- 
ply of animal substances requiring such care to pre- 
serve, and therefore, my practice in this respect has 
been very limited. 



[G. Page 101.] 

Marlmg in England, — Liming. 

Custom compels me to use the name marl for our 
deposits of fossil shells. But as I have defined the ma- 
nuring by this substance, which is called marling, to 
be simply making a soil calcareous, or more so than 
it was before, any term used for that operation would 
serve, if its meaning was always kept in view. But 
this unfortunately is of old and frequent use in English 
books, with very different meanings. These differ- 
ences have been generally stated in the body of the 
essay, and I shall here present the proofs. The follow- 
ing quotations will show that the term m,arl'\s frequent- 
ly applied in Britain, to clays containing no known or 
certain proportion of calcareous earth — that when cal- 
careous earth is known to be contained, it is seldom 
relied on as the most valuable part of the manure — 
and that in most cases the reader is left in doubt whe- 
ther the manure has served to increase or diminish, or 
has not altered materially, the former calcareous in- 
gredient of the soil. 

1. Kirwan, \_Essay on Manures, page 4] on the au- 
thority of Arthur Young, and the Bath Memoirs, states 



208 APPENDIX. 

^nhat in some parts of England, where husbandry is 
^^successfully practised, any loose clay is called marl: 
<' in others, marl is called chalk, and in others, clay 
*'is called loam." 

2. The learned and practical Miller thus defines 
and describes marl, in '^The Abridgment of the Gar- 
^^dener's Dictionary," fifth London edition, at the 
article ^^Marl." 

<^'Marl is a kind of clay which is become fatter and 
*^ of a more enriching quality, by a better fermenta- 
^^tion, and by its having lain so deep in the earth as 
"not to have spent or weakened its fertilizing quality 
*^by any product." 

" Marls are of different qualities in diflerent counties 
" of England." He then names and describes ten va- 
rieties, most of them being very minutely and par- 
ticularly characterized — and in only two of the ten, is 
there any allusion to a calcareous ingredient, and in 
these, it is evidently not deemed to constitute their 
value as manures. These are "the cowshut marl" of 
Cheshire, which " is of a brownish colour, with blue 
" veins in it, and little lumps of chalk or limestone" 
— and "clay-marl; this resembles clay, and is pretty 
"near akin to it, but is fatter, and sometimes mixed 
"with chalk stones." 

" The properties of any sorts of marls, by which the 
"goodness of them may be best known, are better 
"judged of by their purity and uncompoundedness, 
"than their colour: as if it will break in pieces like 
<< dice, or into thin flakes, or is smooth like lead ore, 
^^ and is without a mixture of gravel or sand ; if it will 
"shake like slatestones, and shatter after wet, or will 
" tumble into dust, when it has been exposed to the 



APPENDIX. 209 

^^ sun ; or will not hang and stick together when it is 
'^ thoroughly dry, like tough clay; but is fat and ten- 
"der, and will open the land it is laid on, and not 
**bind; it may be taken for granted that it will be 
'* beneficial to it.'' 

3. Johnson's Dictionary (Octavo edition) defines 
marl in precisely the words of the first sentence of Mil- 
ler, as quoted above. 

4. Walker's Dictionary (Octavo edition) gives only 
the following definition — " Marl — a kind of clay much 
'^used for manure." 

5. «< A Practical Treatise on Husbandry," (2d Lon- 
don Ed. 4to, 1762,) which professes to be principal- 
ly compiled from the writings of Duhamel, Evelyn, 
Home, and Miller, supplies the following quotations. 

Page 27. *^But of all the manures for sandy soils, 
^^none is so good as marl. There are many different 
*^ kinds and colours of it, severally distinguished by 
'^many writers; but their virtue is the same; they 
**may be all used upon the same ground, without the 
^^ smallest difference in their effect. The colour is 
*^ either red, brown, yellow, grey, or mixed. It is to 
'< be known by its pure and uncompounded nature. 
'^ There are many marks to distinguish it by ; such as 
'^its breaking into little square bits; its falling easily 
'^ into pieces, by the force of a blow, or upon being 
'< exposed to the sun and the frost; its feeling fat and 
<^oily, and shining when 'tis dry. But the most un- 
'* erring way to judge of marl, and know it from any 
*^ other substance, is to break a piece as big as a nut- 
<< meg, and when it is quite dry, drop it into a glass 
<^ of clear water, where, if it be right, it will dissolve 
'< and crumble, as it were, to dust, in a little time, shoot- 

s 2 



210 APPENDIX. 

<*ing up sparkles to the surface of the water.'' — Not 
the slightest hint is here of any calcareous ingredient 
being necessary to, or even serving in any manner to 
distinguish marl. But afterwards, in another part of 
this work, (page 29) when shell marl \s slightly no- 
ticed, it is said, ^Uhis effervesces strongly with all 
^^ acids, which is perhaps chiefly owing to the shells. 
<^ There are very good marls which show nothing of 
^'this effervescence : and therefore the author of the 
*^ New System of Agriculture judged right in mak- 
<^ing its solution in water the distinguishing mark.'' 

The last sentence declares, as clearly as any words 
could do, that no calcareous ingredient is necessary, 
either to constitute the character, or the value of marl. 
And though it may be gathered from other parts of 
this work, that what is called marl generally contains 
calcareous earth, yet no importance seems attached to 
that quality, any more than to the particular colour of 
the earth, or any other accidental or immaterial ap- 
pearance of some of the varieties described. 

The " shell marl" alluded to above, without expla- 
nation might be supposed to be similar to our beds of 
fossil shells, which are called marl. The two manures 
are very different in form, appearance, and value, 
though agreeing in both being calcareous. The ma- 
nure called shell marl by the work last quoted from, 
is described there with sufficient precision, and more 
fully in several parts of the Edinburgh Farmer's Ma- 
gazine, and in the Memoirs of the Philadelphia Agri- 
cultural Society, [ Vol. 3. page 206.] It is still more 
unlike marl properly so called, or any of the sub- 
stances described under that name alone, in the fore- 
going, or following quotations. This manure is almost 



APPENDIX. 211 

a pure calcareous earth, being formed of the remains 
of small fresh-water shells deposited on what were once 
the bottoms of lakes, but which have since become 
covered with bog or peat soil. If I may judge from 
our beds of muscle shells, (to which this manure seems 
to bear most resemblance,) much putrescent animal 
matter is combined with, and serves to give additional 
value to, these bodies of shells. This kind of manure is 
sold in Scotland by the bushel, at such prices, as show 
that its value is w^ell understood. It seems to be found 
but in few situations, and though called a kind of marl, 
is never meant when that term only is used generally. 
The opinions expressed in the foregoing extracts, 
prove sufficiently that it was not the ignorant cultiva- 
tors only, w-ho either did not know of, or attached no 
importance to the calcareous ingredient in marl : and 
it was impossible, that from any number of such au- 
thors, an American reader could learn that either the 
object, or the effect of viarling^ was to render a soil 
more calcareous — or that our bodies of fossil shells re- 
sembled marl in character, or in operation, as a ma- 
nure. Of this, the following quotation w^ll furnish 
striking proof — and the more so, as the author refers 
frequently to the works of Anderson, and of Young, 
who treated of marl and calcareous manures, in a more 
scientific manner than had been usual. This author, 
Bordley, cannot be justly charged with inattention to 
the instruction to be gained from books: for his great- 
est fault, as an agriculturist, is his fondness for apply- 
ing the practices of the most improved husbandry of 
England, to our lands and situations, however differ- 
ent and unsuitable — which he carries to an extent that 



212 APPENDIX. 

is ridiculous as theory, and would be ruinous to the 
farmer who should so shape his general practice. 

6. Bordley's Husbandry, 2d edition. [Note to 
page 55.'\ ^^ I farmed in a country [the Eastern Shore 

** of Maryland] where habits are against a due atten- 
"tion to manures: but having read of the application 
*^^ of marl as a manure, I inquired where there was any 
*'in the peninsula of the Chesapeake, in vain. My 
^^own farm had a greyish clay, which to the eye was 
^^marl: but because it did not effervesce with acids, it 
" was given up, when it ought to have been tried on 
"^'the land, especially as it rapidly crumbled and fell 
*^to mud, in water, with some appearance of efferves- 
'< cence.'^ — That peninsula, through which Mr. Bord- 
ley in vain inquired for marl, has immense quantities 
of the fossil shells which we so improperly call by 
that name. But as his search was directed to 7narl as 
described by English authors — and not to calcareous 
earth simply — it is not to be wondered at that he 
should neither find the one substance, or attach enough 
importance to the other, to induce the slightest remark 
on its probable use as manure. 

7. The Practical Treatise on Husbandry, page 21, 
among the directions for improving clay land, has 
what follows. " Sea sand and sea shells are used to 
^^ great advantage as a manure, chiefly for cold strong 
''[i. e. clay,] land, and loam inclining to clay. They 
"separate the j^arts ; and the salts which are contained 
"in them are a very great improvement to the land. 
"Coral, and such kind of stony plants which grow on 
" the rocks, are filled with salts, which are very bene- 
"ficial to land. But as these bodies are hard, the im- 
"proyement is not the first or second year after 



APPENDIX. 213 

''they are laid on the ground, because they require 
'Hime to pulverize them, before their salts can mix 
^' with the earth to impregnate it. The consequence 
''of this is, that their manure is lasting. Sand, and the 
"smaller kind of sea weeds, will enrich land for six 
"or seven years: and shells, coral, and other hard 
" bodies, will continue many years longer. 

" In some countries fossil shells have been used 
" with success as manure ; but they are not near so full 
"of salts, as those shells which are taken from the sea 
"shore; and therefore the latter are always to be pre- 
"ferred. Sea sand is much used as manure in Corn- 
"wall. The best is that which is intimately mixed 
"with coral. '^ After stating the manner in which 
this "excellent manure" is taken up from the bottom, 
in barges, its character is thus continued: "It [i. e. 
"the sea sand mixed with coral, as it may happen,] 
"gives the heat of lime, and the fatness of oil, to the 
"land it is laid upon. Being more solid than shells, 
"it conveys a greater quantity of fermenting earth in 
"equal space. Besides, it does not dissolve in the 
" ground so soon as shells, but decaying more gradual- 
"ly, continues longer to impart its warmth to the 
"juices of the earth." 

Here are described manures which are known to be 
calcareous, which are strongly recommended — but 
solely for their supposed mechanical effect in separat- 
ing the parts of close clays, and on account of the salts 
derived from sea water, which they contain. Indeed, 
no allusion is made to any supposed value, or even to 
the presence of calcareous earth, which forms so large 
a proportion of these manures: and the fossil shells, 
(in which that ingredient is more abundant, more finely 



214 APPENDIX. 

reduced, and consequently more fit for both immediate 
and durable effects,) are considered as less efficacious 
than solid sea shells — and inferior to sea sand. All 
these substances, besides whatever service their salts 
may render, are precisely the same kind of calcareous 
manure, as our beds of fossil shells furnish in a differ- 
ent form. Yet neither here nor elsewhere, does the 
author intimate that these manures and marl have si- 
milar powers for improving soils. 

The foregoing quotations show what opinions have 
been expressed by English writers of reputation — and 
what opinion would be formed by a general reader of 
these and other agricultural works, of the nature of 
what is called marl, in England, as well as what is so 
named in this part of our country. I do not mean that 
other authors have not thought more correctly, and 
sometimes expressed themselves with precision on this 
subject. Mineralogists define marl, to be a calcareous 
clay* — and in this correct sense, the term is used by 
Davy, and other chemical agriculturists. Such authors 
as Young, and Sinclair, also could not have been igno- 
rant of the true composition of marl — yet even they 
have used so little precision or clearness when speak- 
ing of the effects of marling, that their statements, 
(however correct they may be in the sense they in- 
tended theni,) convey no exact information, and have 
not served to remove the erroneous impressions made 
by the great body of their predecessors. Knowing as 
Young did [see first quotation] the confusion in which 
this subject was involved, it was the more incumbent 
on him to be guarded in his use of terms so generally 

• Cleaveland's Mineralogy. 



APPENDIX* 215 

misapplied. Yet considering his practical and Scientific 
knowledge as an agriculturist, his extensive personal 
observations, and the quantity of matter he has publish- 
ed on soils and calcareous manures, his omissions are 
more remarkable than those of any other writer. In 
such of his works as I have met with, though full of 
strong recommendations of marling, in no case does 
he state the composition of the soil, (as respects its cal- 
careous ingredient,) or the proportion added by the 
operation — and generally notices neither, as if he 
viewed marling just as most others have done. These 
charges are supported by the following extracts and 
references. 

8. Young's Farmer's Calendar, 10th London edi- 
tion, page 40. — On marling. Through nearly four 
pages this practice is strongly recommended — but the 
manures spoken of, are regularly called "marl or clay," 
and their application, " marling or claying." Mr. 
Rodwell's account of his practice is inserted at length. 
On leased land he ''clayed or marled" eight hundred 
and twenty acres with one hundred and forty thousand 
loads, and at a cost of four thousand nine hundred and 
fifty-eight pounds — and the business is stated to have 
been attended with great profit. At last, the author 
lets us know that it is not the same substance that he 
has been calling ''marl or clay" — and that the marl 
effervesces strongly with acids, and the clay slightly. 
But we are told nothing more precise as to the amount 
of calcareous ingredients, either in the manures, or 
the soil — and even if we were informed on those 
heads, (without which we can know little or nothing 
of what the operation really is,) we are left ignorant 
of how much was clayed, and how much marled. It 



216 APPENDIX^. 

is to be inferred, however, that the clay was thought 
most serviceable, as Mr. Rodwell says " clay is much 
to be preferred to marl on those sandy soils, some of 
which are loose, poor, and even a black sand." 

9. Young's Survey of Norfolk, (a large and closely 
printed octavo volume,) has fourteen pages filled with 
a minute description of the soils of that county — but 
without any indication whatever of the proportion, 
presence, or absence, of calcareous earth in that exten- 
sive district of sandy soils, so celebrated for their im- 
provement by marling — nor in any other part of the 
county. The wastes are very extensive : one of them 
(page 385) eighteen miles across, quite a desert of 
sand, ^^yet highly improvable.'^ Of this also, no in- 
formation is given as to its calcareous constitution. 

10. The section on marl (page 402, of the same 
work) gives concise statements of its application, with 
general notices of its effects, on near fifty different 
parishes, neighbourhoods, or separate farms. Among 
all these, the only statements from which the calcare- 
ous nature of the manure may be gathered, are, (page 
406) of a marl that "ferments strongly with acids" — 
another, (page 409,) that marling at a particular place 
destroys sorrel — and (page 410) that the marl is gene- 
rally calcareous, and that that containing the most clay, 
and the hast calcareous earth, is preferred by most 
persons, but not by all. 

Young's General View of the Agriculture of Suffolk, 
(an octavo of 432 pages of close print,) in the descrip- 
tion of soils, affords no information as to any of them 
being calcareous, or otherwise : yet the author men- 
tions (page 3) having analyzed some of the soils, and 
reports their aluminous and silicious ingredients. Nor 



APPENDIX. 217 

can more be learned, in this respect, in the long ac- 
count afterwards given of the " marl" which has been 
very extensively applied also in the county of Suffolk. 
We may gather however from the following extracts, 
that the '^marl or clay" of Suffolk, is generally cal- 
careous, but that this quality is not considered the 
principal cause of its value — and further, that crag^ a 
much richer calcareous manure, (which seems to be the 
same with our richest beds of fossil shells, or marl,) 
is held to be injurious to the sandy soils, which are so 
generally improved by what is there called marl. 

11. Page 186. — '■' Claying — a term in Suffolk, which 
<< includes marling; and indeed the earth carried un- 
«' der this term is very generally a clay marl ; though 
^^a pure, or nearly a pure clay, is preferred for very 
*Moose sands." 

12. Page 187. — After speaking of the great value 
of this manure on light lands, he adds — ^^But when 
<' the clay is not of a good sort, that is, when there is 
<^ really none, or scarcely any clay in it, but is an im- 
** perfect and even a hard chalk, there are great doubts 
f ^ how far it answers, and in some cases has been spread 
"to little profit." 

13. Page 5. — ^^Part of the under stratum of the 
" county is a singular body of cockle and other shells, 
" found in great masses in various parts of the country, 
"from Dunwich quite to the river Orwell, &c." "I 
" have seen pits of it to the depth of fifteen or twenty 
"feet, from which great quantities had been taken for 
" the purpose of improving the heaths. It is both red 
" and white, and the shells so broken as to resemble 
"sand. On lands long in tillage, the use is discon- 

T 



218 APPENDIX. 

'^ tinned, as it is found to make the sands blow more/^ 
[ That is, to be moved by the winds. ] 

14. Sinclair's Code of Agriculture, page 138. — - 
^ Marl. Of this substance, there are four sorts, rock — 
' slate — clay — and shell marl. The three former are of 
^ so heavy a nature that they are seldom conveyed to 

* any distance ; though useful when found below a light- 
' er soil. But shell marl is specifically lighter, and con- 

* sists entirely of calcareous matter, (the broken and 
^ partially decayed shells of fish,) which may be ap- 
' plied as a top dressing to wheat and grass, when it 
' would be less advantageous to use quicklime. '' [This 
s the kind of manure referred to in extract 5, and 

there more particularly described.] ^^In Lancashire 
« and Cheshire, clay, or red marl, is the great source of 
^ fertilization, &c.'' " The quantity used is enor- 

* mous ; in many cases about three hundred middling 
<^ cart loads per acre, and the fields are sometimes so 
^ thickly covered as to have the appearance of a red 
' soiled fallow, fresh ploughed.'^ This account of the 

Lancashire improvements made by red clay marl, closes 
with the statement that " the efiects are represented 
^^to be beneficial in the highest degree" — which is 
fully as exact an account of profit, or increased produc- 
tion, as we can obtain of any other marling. Through- 
out, there is no hint as to the calcareous constituents 
of the soil or the manure, or whether either rock, clay, 
or slate marls generally, are valuable for that, or for 
other reasons ; nor indeed could we guess that they con- 
tained any calcareous earth, but for their being classed, 
with many other substances, under the general head 
of calcareous manures. 

15. Code of Agriculture, page 19. — "The means of 



APPENDIX. 219 

"ameliorating the texture of chalky soils, are either 
" by the application of clayey and sandy loams, pure 
" clay, or mar/." " The chalk stratum sometimes lies 
" upon a thick vein of black tenacious marl, of a rich 
•^ quality, which ought to be dug up and mixed with 
"the chalk." 

16. Dickson's Farmer's Companion. — The author 
recommends ^^argillaceous marl" for the improvement 
of chalky soils : and for sandy soils, '' where the calca- 
<<reous principle is in sufficient abundance, argillace- 
^^ous marl, and clayey loams," are recommended as 
manures. 

17. Kirwan on Manures, page SO. — '' Chalky loam. 
'' The- best manure for this soil is clay, or argillaceous 
<^ marl, if clay cannot be had ; because this soil is de- 
^'fective principally in the argillaceous ingredient." 

The evident intention and effect of the marling re- 
commended in the three last extracts, is to diminish 
the proportion of calcareous earth in the soil. 

IS. Kirwan on Manures, page S7. — ^^ In Norfolk, 
^^they seem to value clay more than marl, probably 
<' because their sandy soils already contain calcareous 
^^ parts." From this it would follow, that the great 
and celebrated improvements in Norfolk, made by 
marling, had actually operated to lessen the calcareous 
proportion of the soil, instead of increasing it. Or if 
so scientific and diligent an inquirer as Kirwan was 
deceived on this very important point, it furnishes ad- 
ditional proof of the impossibility of drawing correct 
conclusions on this subject from European books — 
when it is left doubtful, whether the most extensive, 
the most profitable, and the most celebrated improve^ 



220 APPENDIX. 

ments by " marling/^ in Europe, have in fact served 
to make the soil more or less calcareous. 

Most of the extracts which I have presented, are 
from British agriculturists of high character and au- 
thority. If such writers as these, while giving long 
and (in some respects) minute statements of marl, and 
marling, omit to tell, or leave their readers to doubt, 
whether the manure or the soil is the most calcareous 
— or what proportions of calcareous earth, or whether 
any, is present in either — then have I fully established 
that the American reader who may attempt to draw 
instruction from such sources, as to the operation, ef- 
fects and profits of either marl or calcareous manures, 
will be more apt to be deceived and misled, than en- 
lightened. 

Nevertheless, much valuable information may be 
obtained from these same works, on calcareous ma- 
nure, or on marl, (in the sense it is used among us) — 
but under a different head, viz. lime. This manure is 
generally treated of with as little clearness or correct- 
ness, as is done with marl : but the reader at least can- 
not be mistaken in this, that the ultimate effect of every 
application of lime, must be to make the soil more cal- 
careous — and to that cause solely are to be imputed all 
the long-continued beneficial consequences, and great 
profits, which have been derived from liming. But 
excepting this one point, in which we cannot be mis- 
led by ignorance, or want of precision, the mass of 
writings on lime, as well as calcareous manures in ge- 
neral, will need much sifting to yield instruction. The 
opinions published on the operation of lime, are so 
many, so various, and contradictory, that it seems as 
if each author had hazarded a guess, and added it to a 



APPENDIX. 221 

compilation of those of all who had preceded him. 
For a reader of these publications to be able to reject 
all that is erroneous in reasoning, and in statements of 
facts — or inapplicable, on account of difference of soil, 
or other circumstances — and thus obtain only what is 
true, and valuable — it would be necessary for him first 
to understand the subject better than most of those 
whose opinions he was studying. It was not possible 
for them to be correct, when treating (as most do) of 
lime as one kind of manure, and every different form 
of the carbonate of lime, as so many others. Only 
one distinction of this kind (as to operation and effects) 
should be made, and never lost sight of — and that is 
one of substance, still more than of name. Pure or 
quicklime, and carbonate of lime, are manures entirely 
different in their powers and effects. But it should be 
remembered that the substance that was pure lime 
when just burned, often becomes carbonate of lime 
before it is used, (by absorbing carbonic acid from the 
atmosphere,) — still more frequently before a crop is 
planted — and probably ahvays, before the first crop 
ripens. Thus, the manure spoken of as lime, is often 
at first, and always at a later period, neither more nor 
less than calcareous earth. Lime, which at different 
periods, is two distinct kinds of manure, is considered 
as only one : (and to calcareous earth are given as many 
different names, all considered to have different values 
and effects, as there are different forms and mixtures 
of the substance presented by nature.) 

Until now, I have been careful to say but little of 
pure lime, for fear of my meaning being mistaken, 
from the usual practice of confounding it with calcare- 
ous earth — or considering its first and later operations, 

T 2 



222 APPENDIX. 

as belonging to one and the same manure. The con- 
nexion between the manures is so intimate, yet their 
actions so distinct, that my subject requires the con- 
cise notice of lime which will now be offered. 

My own use of lime as a manure has not extended 
beyond a few acres ; and I do not pretend to know any 
thing from experience, of its first or caustic effects : but 
Davy's simple and beautiful theory of its operation 
carries conviction with it, and in accordance with his 
opinions I shall state the theory ; and thence deduce 
its proper practical use. [*^gr. Chem. Lecture 7.] 

By a sufficient degree of heat, the carbonic acid is 
driven off from shells, limestone, or chalk, and the 
remainder is pure or caustic lime. In this state it has 
a powerful decomposing power on all putrescent ani- 
mal and vegetable matters, which it exerts on every 
such substance in the soils to which it is applied as 
manure. If the lime thus meets with solid and inert 
vegetable matters, it hastens their decomposition, 
renders them soluble, and brings them into use and 
action as manure. But such vegetable and animal mat- 
ters as were already decomposed, and fit to support 
growing plants, are injured by the addition of lime — 
as the chemical action which takes place between these 
bodies, forms different compounds which are always 
less valuable than the putrid or soluble matters were, 
before being acted on by the lime. 

This theory will direct us to expect profit from 
liming all soils containing much unrotted and inert 
vegetable matter, as our acid woodland when first 
cleared, and perhaps worn fields, covered with broom 
grass — and to avoid the application of lime, or (what 
is the same thing,) to destroy previously its caustic 



APPENDIX. 223 

quality by exposure to the air, on all good soils con- 
taining soluble vegetable or animal matters, and on all 
poor soils deficient in inert, as well as active nourish- 
ment for plants. The warmth of our climate so much 
aids the fermentation of all putrescent matters in soils, 
that it can seldom be required to hasten it by artificial 
means: to check its rapidity is much more. necessary, 
to avoid the waste of manures in our lands. But in 
England, and still more in Scotland, the case is very 
different. There, the coldness and moisture of the 
climate greatly retard the fermentation of the vegeta- 
ble matter that falls on the land — so much so, that in 
certain situations the most favourable to such results, 
the vegetable cover is increased by the deposit of every 
successive year, and forms those vegetable soils, which 
are called moor, 2oeat, and bog lands. Vegetable mat- 
ter abounds in these soils, sometimes it even forms the 
greater bulk for many feet in depth — but it is inert, 
insoluble, and useless, and the soil is unable to bring 
any useful crop, though containing vegetable matter 
in such excess. Many millions of acres in Britain, are 
of the different grades of peat soils, of which not an 
acre exists in the eastern half of Virginia. Upon this 
ground of the difference of climate, and its effect on 
fermentation, I deduce the opinion that lime would 
be serviceable much more generally in Britain than 
with us: and indeed that there are very few cases in 
which the caustic quality would not do our arable lands 
more harm than good. This is no contradiction of the 
great improvements which have been made on some 
farms by applying lime — because its caustic quality 
was seldom allowed to act at all. Lime is continually 
changing to the carbonate of lime, and in practice, no 



224 APPENDIX. 

exact line of separation can be drawn between the 
transient effects of the one, and the later, but durable 
improvement from the other. Lime powerfully attracts 
the carbonic acid of which it was deprived by heat, 
and that acid is universally diffused through the atmo- 
sphere (though in a very small proportion,) and is pro- 
duced by every decomposing putrescent substance. 
Consequently caustic lime on land, is continually ab- 
sorbing and combining with this acid ; and with more 
or less rapidity, according to the manner of its appli- 
cation, is returning to its former state of mild calcare- 
ous earth. If spread as a top dressing on grass lands 
— or on ploughed land, arid superficially mixed with 
the soil by harrowing — or used in composts with fer- 
menting vegetable matter — the lime is probably com- 
pletely carbonated, before its causticity can act on the 
soil. In no case can lime, applied properly as manure, 
long remain caustic in the soil. Thus most applica- 
tions of lime are simply applications of calcareous 
earth, but acting with greater power at first, in propor- 
tion to its quantity, because more finely divided, and 
more equally distributed. 

[H. Page 145.] 

The cause of the inefficacy of gypsum as a manure 
on acid soils. 

I do not pretend to explain the mode of operation 
by which gypsum produces its almost magic benefits: 
it would be equally hopeless and ridiculous for one 
having so little knowledge of the successful practice, 
to attempt an explanation, in which so many good 



APPENDIX. 225 

chemists, and agriculturists both scientific and prac- 
tical, have completely failed. There is no operation 
of nature less understood, or of which the cause, or 
agent, seems so totally disproportioned to the effect, 
as the enormous increase of vegetable growth from a 
very small quantity of gypsum, in circumstances fa- 
vourable to its action. All other known manures, 
whatever may be the nature of their action, require 
to be applied in quantities, very far exceeding any 
bulk of crop expected from their use. But one bushel 
of gypsum, spread over an acre of land fit for its action, 
may add more than twenty times its own weight to a 
single crop of clover. 

However wonderful and inscrutable the fertilizing 
power of this manure may be, and admitting its cause 
as yet to be hidden, and entirely beyond our reach — 
still it is possible to show reasons why gypsum cannot 
act on many situations, where all experience has prov- 
ed it to be worthless. If this only can be satisfac- 
torily explained, it will remove much of the uncertainty 
as to the effects to be expected : and the farmer may 
thence learn on what soils he may hope for benefit 
from this manure — on what it will certainly be thrown 
away — and by what means the circumstances adverse 
to its action may be removed, and its efhcacy thereby 
secured. This is the explanation that I shall attempt. 

If the vegetable acid, which I suppose to exist in 
what I have called acid soils, is not the oxalic, (which 
is the particular acid in sorrel,) at least every vegeta- 
ble acid, being composed of different proportions of 
the same elements, may easily change to any other, 
and all to the oxalic acid. This, of all bodies known 
by chemists, has the strongest attraction for lime, and 



226 APPENDIX. 

will take it from any other acid which was before com- 
bined with it — and for that purpose, the oxalic acid 
will let go any other earth or metal, which it had be- 
fore held in combination. Let us then observe what 
would be the effect of the known chemical action of 
these substances, on their meeting in soils. If oxalic 
acid was produced in any soil, its immediate effect 
would be to unite with its proper proportion of lime, 
if enough was in the soil in any combination whatever. 
If the lime was in such small quantity as to leave an 
excess of oxalic acid, that excess would seize on the 
other substances in the soil, in the order of their mu- 
tual attractive force; and one or more of such sub- 
stances are always present, as magnesia, or more cer- 
tainly, iron and alumina. The soil then would not only 
contain some proportion of the oxalate of lime, but 
also the oxalate of either one or more of the other 
substances named. Let us suppose gypsum to be ap- 
plied to this soil. This substance, (sulphate of lime) 
is composed of sulphuric acid and lime. It is applied 
in a finely pulverized state, and in quantities from 
half a bushel to two bushels the acre — generally not 
more than one bushel. As soon as the earth is made 
wet enough for any chemical decomposition to take 
place, the oxalic acid must let go its hast of iron, or 
alumina, and seize upon and combine with the lime 
that formed an ingredient of the gypsum. The sul- 
phuric acid left free, will combine with the iron, or the 
alumina of the soil, forming copperas in the one case, 
and alum in the other. The gypsum no longer exists 
— and surely no more satisfactory reason can be given 
why no effect from it should follow. The decompo- 
sition of the gypsum has served to form two or per- 



APPENDIX. 227 

haps three other substances. One of them, oxalate of 
lime, I suppose to be higlily valuable as manure : but 
the very small quantity that could be formed out of 
one or even two bushels of gypsum, could have no 
more visible effect on a whole acre, than that small quan- 
tity of calcareous earth, or farm-yard manure. The 
other substance certainly formed, copperas, is known 
to be a poison to soil and to plants — and alum, of which 
the formation would be doubtful, I believe is also hurt- 
ful. In such small quantities, however, the poison 
would be as little perceptible as the manure — and no 
apparent effect whatever could follow such an applica- 
tion of gypsum to an acid soil. So small a proportion 
of oxalic acid, or any oxalate other than of lime, would 
suffice to decompose and destroy the gypsum, that it 
would not amount to one part in twenty thousand of 
the soil. 

Why gypsum sometimes acts as a manure on acid 
soils, when applied in large quantities for the space, is 
equally well explained by the same theory. If a hand- 
ful, or even a spoonful of gypsum is put on a space of 
six inches square, it would so much exceed in propor- 
tion all the oxalic acid that could speedily come in 
contact with it, that all would not be decomposed — 
and the part that continued to be gypsum, would show 
its peculiar powers perhaps long enough to improve 
one crop. But as tillage scattered these little collec- 
tions more equally over the whole space — or even as 
repeated soaking rains allowed the extension of the 
attractive powers — applications like these would also 
be destroyed, after a very short-lived and limited 
action. 

Soils that are naturally calcareous, cannot contain 



228 APPENDIX. 

oxalic acid combined with any other base than lime. 
Hence, gypsum applied there, continues to be gypsum 
—and exerts its great fertilizing power as in Loudon 
or Frederic. But even on those most suitable soils, 
this manure is said not to be certain and uniform in its 
effects — and of course more certain results are not to 
be looked for with us. I have not undertaken to ex- 
plain its occasional failures any more than its general 
success, on the lands where it is profitably used — but 
only why it cannot act at all, on lands of a different 
kind. 

The same chemical action being supposed, explains 
why the power of profiting by gypsum should be 
awakened on acid soils after making them calcareous 
— and why that manure should seldom fail, when ap- 
plied mixed with very large quantities of calcareous 
earth. 



[I. Page 176.] 

Estimates of the cost of labour applied to marling. 

Before we can estimate with any truth the expense 
of improving land by marling, it is necessary to fix 
the fair cost of every kind of labour necessary for the 
purpose, and for a length of time not less than one 
year. We very often hear guesses of how much a 
day's labour of a man, a horse, or a wagon and team, 
may be worth — and all are wide of the truth, because 
they are made on wrong premises, or no premises 
whatever. The only correct method is to reduce every 
kind of labour to its elements — and to fix the cost of 
every particular necessary to furnish it. This I shall 



APPENDIX. 229 

attempt : and if my estimates are erroneous in any par- 
ticular, others better informed may easily correct my 
calculation in that respect, and make the necessary al- 
lowance on the final amount. Thus, even my mistakes 
in the grounds of these estimates, will not prevent true 
and valuable results being derived from them. 

The following estimates were made in 1828, ac- 
cording to the prices of that year. I shall make no 
alteration in any of the sums, because there is no con- 
siderable difference at this time, (January 1832,) and 
the least alteration would make it necessary to change 
the after calculations founded on them. But no one 
estimate will suit for years of different prices. If any 
one wished to know the value of labour when corn 
(for example) was higher or lower, he must ascertain 
the difference in that item, and add or deduct, so as to 
correct the error. 

Cost of the labour of a Negro Man in 1828. 

^tVe for the year, payable at the end, - - - $38 00 
Food--l9^ bushels of corn at 40 cents, $7 80 
Add 10 per cent, for waste in 

keeping, - - - - 78 

Meat and fish, &c., - - 9 00 

$17 58 

Interest for one year on $ 17 58, paid for food, 1 05 



Clothing — 6 yards coarse three-fourths woollen 
cloth, at 50 cents, - . - 

12 yards cotton, for summer clothes 
and two shirts, at 12 cents, - 

Blanket at § 1 50, once in two years 
— yearly, - - - - - 

Shoes and mending, - - - 



18 63 



1k1 


00 


1 


44 




75 


2 


50 



7 19 



Amount carried forward, $ 63 83 

U 



230 APPENDIX. 

Amount brought forward, $ 63 82 

Taxes — State, 47 cents — county, 47 — poor, 33 

— road, suppose 1 dollar, - - %2 27 
His share of expense of quarters, fuel, 

and sending to mill, - - - 4 50 
Nursing when sick, (exclusive of medi- 
cal aid,) 1 50 

8 27 



$72 09 



Add 20 per cent, on the whole of the above for cost of 
superintendence, waste, wanton damage to stock, 
tools, &,c., and thefts, 14 41 

Total expense per year, $ 86 50 

Time lost — Sundays and holydays, 58 
Bad weather and half 

holydays, - - 20 
Sickness, - - 10 



From 365, deduct 88, leaves 277 working days. 

277 days costing $ 86 50, makes the cost of each working day 31^ 

cents. 

J2 6771 arks. 

The hire was fixed at the average price obtained 
that year for ten or twelve young men hired out at the 
highest bids, for field labour. According to our es- 
tablished custom, all the expenses of medical attend- 
ance, and loss of time from the death of a slave occur- 
ring when he is hired, are paid, or deducted from the 
hire by the owner — and therefore are omitted in this 
estimate. By supposing the slave to be hired by his 
employer, instead of being owned, the calculation is 
made more simple, and therefore more correct. 

Cost of the labour of a Negro Woman. 

Hire for the year, ^10 00 

Food, 12 95 

Clothing, blanket, and shoes, - - - 6 50 

T»xes, quarters, fuel, mill, nursing, &c., - 7 19 

Amount carried forward, $Z7 14 



APPENDIX. 231 

Amount brought forward, $ 37 14 

Add 20 per cent, as before, for superintendence, &.C., 7 53 

Total yearly cost, $ 44 67 

Suppose lost time, 108 days, leaves working days 257, at 17^ 
cents. 

Nearly all the women who are usually hired out, 
are wanted by persons having few or no other slaves, 
as cooks, or for some other employment at which they 
are more useful, than at field labour — and their price 
is nearer fifteen dollars in these cases. But when there 
is no demand for such purposes, women for field labour 
will not bring more than ten dollars. 

A boy of thirteen or fourteen would hire for more 
than the foregoing estimate of the hire of a woman, 
but would not lose half the time from sickness and bad 
weather, and therefore may be supposed to cost the 
same per day, or seventeen and one-third cents. A 
girl, fifteen or sixteen-years, for similar reasons, may 
be put at the same price. 

Cost of the labour of a Horse. 

First cost of a good work horse, $ 80 00 — sup- 
posed to last five years at work, makes the 
yearly weaTf $ 16 00 

Interest for one year on §80 00 — $4 80 — 
Tax, 12 cents, 

20 bbls. of corn at §2 00— 3,500 lbs. of fodder 

at 50 cents the hundred, - - . . 
Add 10 per cent, for waste in keeping, - 

Interest on $ 63 25, for one year. 
Share of yearly expense for corn-house. 

Total yearly cost, 
Lost time, 98 days, leaves 267 working days, at 3o cents. 



4 


92 






$20 


92 


^57 


50 




5 


75 






63 


25 


$3 


79 
47 






A, 


26 








$88 


44 



232 APPENDIX. 

A mule eats less corn than a horse, but more hay, 
and lives longer — and maybe considered as costing one- 
fifth less — or yearly cost — ^70 00 — and daily, 265 
cents. 

A tumbril for marling, will cost when new, $ 25 00 
It will last two years, or (what is the same thing) if that 
sum will pay for all repairs, for two years — its wear per 

year, is $ 12 50 

Interest on $ 25 00 for a year, .... 1 50 

Cost per year, $ 14 00 

And at 267 working days — cost per day 5 cents. 

In the estimate of the cost of horse labour, no charge 
is made for attendance, because that is part of the la- 
bour of the driver, and forms part of his expense. No 
charge is made for grazing, because enough corn and 
liav are allowed for every day in the year — and when 
grass is part of his food, more than as much in value 
is saved in his dry food. No charge is made for stable 
or litter, as the manure made is supposed to compen- 
sate those expenses. 

It may be supposed that the prices fixed for corn, 
and fodder or hay, are too low for an average. Such 
is not my opinion. The price is fixed at the beginning 
of the year, when it is always comparatively low, be- 
cause it is too soon for purchasers to keep shelled corn 
in bulk, and the market is glutted. Besides, the allow- 
ance for waste during the year's use (10 per cent.) 
makes the actual price equal to two dollars and twenty 
cents on July 1st. The nominal country price of corn 
in January, is almost always on credit — and small 
debts for corn are the latest and worst paid of all. The 
farmer who can consume any additional portion of his 
crop, in employing profitable labour, becomes his owa 



APPENDIX. 233 

best customer. The corn supposed to be used, by these 
estimates, is transferred on the first of January, with- 
out even the trouble of shelling or measuring, from 
A. B. corn-seller^ to A. B. marler, and instantly paid 
for. Two dollars per barrel at that early time, and 
obtained with as little trouble from any purchaser, 
would be a better regular sale, than the average of 
prices and payments have afforded for the last eight 
years. 



COST OF MARLING, 

Founded on the foregoing estimates of the cost of 

labour. 

From the beginning of November 1823, to the 31st 
of May 1824, a regular force, of two horses and suitable 
hands, was employed in marling on Coggin's Point, on 
every working day, unless prevented by bad weather, 
wet and soft roads, or some pressing labour of other 
kinds. The same two horses were used, without any 
change, and indeed, they had drawn the greater part 
of all the marl carried out on the farm, since 1818. 
The best of the two was seventeen years old — both of 
middle size, and both worse than any of my other 
horses, which were kept at ploughing. 

The following estimates were made on a connected 
portion of this time and labour, and upon my own per- 
sonal observation and notes of the work, from the be- 
ginning to the end. It was very desirable to me, to 
know the exact cost of some considerable job of marl- 
ing, attended with certain known difficulties, and on 

u2 



234 APPENDIX. 

any particular mode of estimating the expense : for 
although the same degree of difficulty, and of cost of 
labour, might never again be met with, still, any such 
estimate would furnish a tolerable rule, to apply, in a 
modified form, to any other undertaking of this kind. 
These estimates may be even more useful to other 
persons — as they will serve generally to prove that the 
greatest obstacles to the execution of this improve- 
ment, are less alarming, and more easily overcome, 
than any inexperienced persons would suppose. 

Both these jobs were attended with uncommon dif- 
ficulties, in the unusual thickness of the superincum- 
bent earth, compared to that of the fossil shells worth 
digging, and on account of the distance, and amount 
of ascent to the field. The first job was so much more 
expensive than was anticipated, that it may perhaps 
be considered as a failure — but as the account of its 
expense had been kept so carefully, it will be given, 
just as if more success and profit had been obtained. 
This work was commenced April 14th, 1824. The 
bed of marl for the upper six feet of its thickness, is 
dry and firm, though easy to dig, and rich. It has an 
average strength of -jYo — ^^^ shells mostly pulverized, 
and the remaining earth more of clay than sand. After 
being carried out, the heaps appear, to a superficial 
observer, to be a coarse loose sand. Below six feet, 
the marl became so poor as not to be worth carrying 
out, and was not used except when the distance was 
very short. Its strength was less than Jy_. The bed 
at first was exposed on the surface, near the bottom of 
a steep hill-side — but as a large quantity had been taken 
out, and several successive cuts made into the face of 
the hill, some years before, the covering earth was 



APPENDIX. 235 

increased, on the space now to be cleared, so as to vary 
between eight and sixteen feet, and I think averaged 
between eleven and twelve. The situation of the marl 
and road required that a clear cartway should be made 
as low as the intended digging: and therefore nearly 
all of the earth was to be moved by a scraper, and was 
thrown into the narrow bottom at the foot of the hill. 
This earth served thus to form an excellent causeway 
across the valley, which made part of the road in the 
next undertaking. All this marl runs horizontally, 
and the layers of different qualities are very uniform 
in their thickness. The greater part of the covering 
earth is a hard clay, or impure fuller^ s earth, which 
was difficult to dig, and still more so for the scraper to 
take up and remove. Part was thrown off by shovels, 
and served to increase a mound made by former ope- 
rations, within the circle around which the scraper was 
carried. 

Labour used in digghig and removing earth, 

4 days' labour of 9 men, at 31^ cents each, - - $11 25 

4 6 women, 7 ,. -.^i ^ ^ ^r> 

- c) 1 ^ at 17^ cents. - - 5 58 

4 2 boys, 3 

4 1 young girl at 15, and 1 old man at 25, 1 60 

3 8 oxen, (the scraper being drawn by 4 

half the day, which then rested and grazed while the 

others worked the other half of the day,) — at 20 cents 

each, 4 80 

Add 80 cents for wear of scraper, hoes, and shovels, - 80 

Total, $24 03* 



The price allowed for the oxen is much too high for 
common work, and so much rest allowed : but they 
work so seldom at the scraper, that both the men and 



236 APPENDIX. 

the oxen are awkward, and the labour is very heavy, 
and even injurious to the team. 

Labour of digging and carrying out the Marl. 

Three tumbrils were kept at work on this job and 
the next, a good mule being added to the regular cart- 
ing force — and no time was lost from April 20th, to 
May 31st, except when carts broke down, (which was 
very often, owing to careless driving, and worse car- 
pentry,) or when bad weather compelled this labour 
to stop. One man dug the marl and assisted to load: 
another man loaded, and led the cart out of the pit, un- 
til he met another driver returning from the field, to 
whom he delivered the loaded cart and returned to the 
pit with the empty one. Of the two other drivers, one 
was a boy of sixteen, and the other twelve years old 
— the youngest only was permitted to ride back, when 
returning empty. The distance to the nearest part of 
the work (measured by the chain,) was nine hundred 
and two yards, and the farthest one thousand and forty- 
five : adding two-thirds of the difference to the nearest 
for the average distance, makes nine hundred and 
ninety-seven yards. The ascent from the pit, by a 
road formerly cut and well graduated, for marling, was 
supposed to be twenty-five feet in perpendicular height 
— and every trip of the carts, going and coming, cross- 
ed a valley, supposed to be fifteen feet deep, and both 
sides forming a hill-side of that elevation. 

When only four and a half feet of the marl had been 
dug, a large mass of earth fell into the pit, covered 
entirely the remaining one and a half feet of marl, 
and stopped all passage for carts. To clear away this 
obstruction would have cost more labour than the re- 



APPENDIX. 237 

maining marl was worth, and therefore this pit was 
abandoned. This happened on May 10th, when six 
hundred and ninety-nine loads had been carried out, 
and the work done was equal to thirty-six days' w^ork 
of one cart (by adding together all the working time 
of each) — which was nineteen and a half loads for the 
average daily work of each cart, or fifty-eight for the 
three. The average size of the loads, by trial, was 
five and a half heaped bushels — and the weight, one 
hundred and one pounds the bushel. It was laid on 
at one hundred and four loads or five hundred and 
seventy-tw^o bushels the acre. 

Labour employed^ for G69 loads ^ or 3 6 SO bushels. 

2 men at 3H cents, .... 62^ 

2 boys at 19 cents, .... 38 

2 horses at. 33 cents. . ■ ,. 66 
1 mule at 26^ cents, . . - 

3 carts at 5 cents — tools at 3, 

Daily expense, or for 58 loads, 

Digging and carting 699 loads at the same rate. 
Add the total expense of removing eartli, - 

Spreading at 3H cents the 100 loads, 
Total expense, 

Which makes the cost per bushel, 1 34-100 cents. 

per load, (5^) 7 36-100 

per acre, of 572 bushels, $ 7 66 

This marl was laid on much too thick for common 
poor land, and one-fourth of the body uncovered was 
lost, by the falling in of the earth. If one-fourth of 
the expense of uncovering the marl, was deducted oa 



18 




$2 11 




. S 25 
24 


25 
03 


$49 
2 


28 
19 


$51 


47 



238 APPENDIX. 

account of this loss, it would reduce the whole expense 
nearly one-eighth. 

As soon as the carts were stopped in the work just de- 
scribed, they were employed in moving earth from si- 
milar marl, across the ravine. The thickness, strength, 
and other qualities of the marl, on both sides, are not 
perceptibly different. A large quantity had also been 
formerly dug on this side, but the land being lower, 
the covering earth was not more than ten feet where 
thickest, and the average was eight and a half or nine 
feet. To make room for convenient working, and a 
large job, an unusual space was cleared, ten to four- 
teen feet wide, and perhaps fifty or more long. The 
shape of the adjoining old pits, compelled this to be 
irregular. The greater part of the earth was of the 
same hard fuller's earth mentioned as being on the 
other side— and the upper part of this was still worse, 
being in woods, and the digging was obstructed by the 
roots and trees. 

Labour used in digging and removing the earth, 

^ o •'^atoHcents, - - $ 8 43| 

1 man 3 3^' ^ . * 

5 women 5 "^ 

1 woman 1 > at 17-j cents, - - 6 24 

2 boys 5 J 

1 old man 2 25 cents, - - 50 

2 girls 6 15 cents, - - 1 80 
8 oxen, for the scraper, as before, each team at rest 

half the day, 5 days, at 20 cents, - - 8 00 

3 horses and carts, 1^ at 38 cents, - - 1 71 
Add for damage to scraper and other vitensils, - 80 



Total cost of moving earth, $ 27 48| 



APPENDIX. 239 

Enough of the earth was carried by the carts to the 
dam crossing the ravine, to raise the road as high as 
the bottom of the intended pit. The balance was 
thrown into the valley whenever most convenient. 
Only a small propsfftion, perhaps one-third, could be 
thrown off, without being carried away by the carts 
and scraper. 

The loads were carried to the same field, and by the 
same road as from the former diggino;. The first hun- 
dred and ninety-one loads served to finish the piece 
begun before, of which the average distance was nine 
hundred and ninety-seven yards : all the balance was 
carried to land adjoining the former, eight hundred 
and forty-seVen measured yards from the pit. 

The loads were ordered to be increased to six bushels, 
which was as much as the carts (without tail-boards) 
could hold, without waste, in ascending the hills : but 
as the loaders often fell below that quantity, I suppose 
the average to have been five and three-fourths heaped 
bushels, or five hundred and eighty-one pounds. 

The tumbrils were kept constantly at this work, 
except when some of the land was too wet, or for some 
other unavoidable cause of delay. All the space which 
the old pits occupied, and over which the road passed, 
being composed of tough clay thrown from later open- 
ings, and which had never become solid, was made 
miry by every heavy rain, and caused more loss of 
time than would usually occur at that season. The 
same four labourers, and two horses, and one mule, 
employed as before — and their daily work was as fol- 
lows. — 



240 



APPENDIX. 



May 13th, Began the new pit — 2 tumbrils all 
the day, and 1 for 2 hours only, 
afterwards otherwise employed, 
14th, 2 tumbrils half the day, then em- 
ployed otherwise — (1 horse idle,) 
15th, 3 ditto, - . j» - 

Monday l^th, 3 ditto, finished most distant 
work with - . . . 



and began nearest with - 
18th, 3 ditto, for 4 hours (stopped by 

heavy rain,) . _ _ 

19th and 20th, 3 ditto, carrying manure, 

on drier land, 
21st, 3 ditto, return to marling, 
22d, Rain — no work done by horses. 
Monday 24th, 1 ditto, moving manure. 
25th, 3 ditto, return to marling, 
26th, 3 ditto, ditto, - 
27th, 3 ditto, ditto, - 
28th, 3 ditto, ditto, - 
29 th, 3 ditto, (shafts of one broken 

and repaired,) ... 

Monday 31st, 3 ditto, until rain at 4, P. M. 



47 loads. 



21 



61 



62 



22 



>% 



191j 
"1 





>> 




b- 


75 


00 




<D 




u 




'1 


74 


^ 


75 


bo 


72 


e4 
(L> 


72 


> 


64 




53 




'ill 









702 



After this stoppage, the horses were put to plough- 
ing the corn, that the cultivation might be sufficiently 
advanced to use all the labourers in harvest, which be- 
gan on the 11th of June. As near as I could determine 
by inspection, and a rough cubic measurement, about 
one half of the uncovered marl was then dug and car- 
ried out. As the remainder was not dug until August? 
when 1 was absent from home, I have no more correct 
means of ascertaining these proportions ; and shall ac- 
cording to this supposition charge half the actual co^t 



APPENDIX. 241 

of the whole uncovering of earth, to this supposed half 
of the marl which formed this last operation. 

The list of day's work shows that the average num- 
ber of loads per day, at eight hundred and forty-seven 
yards, was twenty-four and a half for each cart, which 
made twenty-three and a half miles for the day's jour- 
ney of each horse. The first four days' work finished 
the farthest piece, of which the average distance was 
nine hundred and ninety-seven yards — but this part of 
tl)e work was on the nearest side of that piece, and at 
less than that average distance. I shall not make any 
separate calculation for these hundred and ninety-one 
loads, but consider all as if carried only eight hundred 
and forty-seven yards. 

The daily cost of the labouring force, 2 men, 2 boys, 2 
horses, and 1 mule, was before esthnated at $ 2 11 — 
which served to carry out 73 J loads, or 422 bushels. 
At that rate, (to May 31st,) 702 loads, or 4036 bushels, 
cost, $20 15 

Add half the expense of uncovering-, (half the marl still 

remaining not dug,) 13 74 

For spreading, at 31^ cents per hundred loads, - 2 18J 



Total cost of 4036 bushels laid on, $ 36 



Which makes the cost per bushel, 9 mills nearly. 
And per acre, at 104 loads, or 598 bushels, - - $5 34^ 
Or at 400 bushels, which would have been a sufficient, 
and much safer dressing, $2 57^ 

In 1828, at Shellbanks, a very poor, worn, and hilly 
farm, I commenced marling, and in about four months, 
finished one hundred and twenty and a half acres at 
rates between two hundred and thirty and two hun- 
dred and eighty bushels per acre. The time taken up 
in this work, was five days in January, and all Feb- 
X 



242 APPENDIX. 

ruary and March, with two carts at work — and from 
the 5th of August, to the 27th of September, with a 
much stronger force. I kept a very minute journal of 
all these operations, showing the amount of labour em- 
ployed, and of loads carried out during the whole time. 
It would be entirely unnecessary to state here any 
thing more than the general amounts of labour and its 
expense, after the two particular statements just sub- 
mitted. At Shellbanks, the difficulties of opening pits 
were generally less — the average distance shorter,, and 
the reduced state of the soil, and the strength of the 
marl, made heavy dressings dangerous. These circum- 
stances all served to diminish the expense to the acre. 
The difficulties, however, at some of the pits, were very 
great, owing to the quantity of water continually run- 
ning in through the loose fragments of the shells — and 
almost every load was carried up some high hill. Tak- 
ing every thing into consideration, 1 should suppose 
that the labour and cost of this large job of marling 
w^ill be equal to, if not greater, than the average of all 
that may be undertaken, and judiciously executed, on 
farms having plenty of this means for improvement, 
at convenient distances. 

Cost of marling 120| acres at Shellbanks. 

Preparatory work, including" uncovering* marl, cutting and 
repairing the necessary roads, and bringing corn for the 
team — Digging-, carrying out, and spreading 6892 loads 
(4| heaped bushels) of mar], ... - $250 3Z 

At the average rate of 57^ loads, or 259 bushels per acre, 
the average expense was, to the acre, - - - 2 08 
To the load, - . . 3 cents and 63.100ths, 
And to the bushel, - - 83-lOOths. 

FINIS. 



J. W. CAMPBEIili, 

PETEBSBUHG, VA. 

Keeps constantly on hand a very full assortment of 

SCHOOL, CLASSICAL, MEDICAL, AND MIS- 
CELLANEOUS BOOKS, 

Which he offers at very reduced prices — many of them at one-half 
what they formerly sold at. 



Mso^ a large, supply of English and *dmerican 
Stationary, to wit. 

Fine Writing and Letter Paper. 

Pink, Blue, Yellow, and Embossed do, 

Superior English Quills. 

Walkden's genuine British Ink-powder. 

Walkden's black and red Ink. 

London durable Ink, for writing on Linen. 

Ever-pointed Silver Pencil Cases. 

Perryian and Silver Pens. 

Blank and Record Books. 

JNIusic and Musical Instruments, a great variety. 

Paper Hangings — Borders — Fire-screen Boards. 

Rogers's Silver-steel Penknives. 

Walking Canes and Riding Whips. 

Pocket-books — Wallets — and Card-cases. 

Visiting Cards — Sealing Wax^Wafers. 

Paste Blacking, &c., &c. 



477 « 



>^^ 



